Sony Corp Chief Executive Officer Nobuyuki Idei reminded an audience at a conference earlier this month why content matters.
"Japan needs to free itself from a culture that pays little attention to the content business or it will fall behind China and its other competitors around the world," Idei said in a speech to about 500 executives and engineers.
Idei is again putting words into action. The world's second-largest consumer electronics maker, owner of a movie studio and its own music business, is pushing ahead with its bid to buy the main assets of KirchMedia GmbH even after German publisher WAZ Group and Commerzbank AG, Germany's fourth-largest bank, abandoned a joint bid.
By snapping up media assets -- the rights to Germany's biggest film library in the case of KirchMedia -- Sony would gain contents that would otherwise take years to develop. The next step is piping it to Sony products such as game consoles or portable stereos. The combination of Internet capabilities and digital media, Idei reckons, distinguishes Sony from rivals such as Taiwan's Acer Inc (
Investors still aren't convinced the plan will work. Sony's shares failed to receive a boost when Germany's Business newspaper first reported the company would bid for KirchMedia's assets in partnership with WAZ Group and Commerzbank. Since the June 9 report, Sony's shares fell 22 percent, only slightly better than the 24 percent declines for the Nikkei 225 Stock Average and rival Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.
Sony said Monday it bounced back into profit in the September quarter powered by restructuring efforts, demand for video games and a tax gain.
But the consumer electronics giant cut a full-year sales forecast due to uncertain global demand for electronics in the second half.
In the three months to September, Sony posted a group net profit of ?44.1 billion (US$361 million) reversing a ?13.2 billion loss a year earlier.
"In the electronics business, strong sales of consumer audio visual products, a recovery in our semiconductor and components business and the positive impact of restructuring activities that we accelerated since last year caused a steady improvement in profitability," Sony chairman and chief executive Nobuyuki Idei said.
For all Idei's talk of the digital future and investments in digital production technologies -- Sony and Panavision Inc provided the digital cameras used to shoot the latest installment of the Star Wars saga -- Sony is still primarily a consumer-electronics maker. In the company's fiscal first quarter, Sony's electronics business accounted for 95 percent of its operating profit and 71 percent of total sales.
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