Sony Pictures reportedly in talks to buy Paramount. |UP|Sony Makes $26 Billion All-Cash Offer for Paramount.

[Yurinka]

Activision could of gone bankrupt in the next couple of years

They weren't at all.

Activision Blizzard King revenue in Billions (every bar is a year):

Their net revenue:

MS bought them because they wanted for them the money ABK makes, including the one they make in PS and Nintendo.

MS knows they'll make more way money getting (in most cases the "70%", in a tiny minority 100%) of games and addons sold to many hundreds of millions of players in all platforms than getting 100% of the tiny sales they make in their unsuccessful console + the "30%" cut they get from 3rd party.

They knew they lost their battle against Sony as high end console platform holders, so slowly moved their focus since many years ago to become a multiplatform publisher with Windows as main platform, and also trying to -unsuccessfully- dominate the game subs or cloud gaming markets.

 

[RE4-Station]

They weren't at all.

Activision Blizzard King revenue in Billions (every bar is a year):

Their net revenue:

MS bought them because they wanted for them the money ABK makes, including the one they make in PS and Nintendo.

MS knows they'll make more way money getting (in most cases the "70%", in a tiny minority 100%) of games and addons sold to many hundreds of millions of players in all platforms than getting 100% of the tiny sales they make in their unsuccessful console + the "30%" cut they get from 3rd party.

They knew they lost their battle against Sony as high end console platform holders, so slowly moved their focus since many years ago to become a multiplatform publisher with Windows as main platform, and also trying to -unsuccessfully- dominate the game subs or cloud gaming markets.

The things is tho, Activision was canned projects left and right just to continue COD and looking at the drop Vanguard had there was a real possibility of COD losing just enough relevance that it might not be able to recoup the budget on 800 plus people working on a yearly release for COD. Also I cant remember 100% but didnt diablo also fall a bit under expectations. I am not saying 100% Activision could of gone under but there was a chance they could of especially of the controversies kept getting more and more attention

 

[RE4-Station]

Absolutely agree. They only have run because of surprisingly good Sonic movies. If Sony wants a good movie maker, they should go for the talented studio which made Mario Bros movie.

Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning is considered a flop and still made almost back double what it costed to produce it even with lengthy delays and hard competition against the barbie and Oppenheimer movies that came out about a week or so later. How many gaming flops can say they nearly made back double what ot costed to produce it?

 

[enpleinjour]

A lot of misunderstanding here:

Firstly, Paramount may have $30B in revenue but $20B of that is Linear TV revenue via stuff like CBS.
Sony, and any foreign company, is banned from ever owning one of the big 5 or so US TV networks.

So automatically, Sony's available revenue is $10B.
Oh and Sony will also get pursued by the FTC/DOJ for being one of the big 5 Hollywood studios and buying another Big 5.

Movies = $3B
Paramount+ = $6B

But its even worse than it looks.

• TV profit = $5B
• Movies profit = - $0.12B
• P+ profit = - $1.8B

So the TV side which Sony can't have is making $5B profit while what Sony may have is having a spectacular $2B LOSS

And the rumour is the offer is low $20B so for Sony to spend $10B on this is beyond a joke.
Disasatrous move by a creatively bankrupt Sony C class execs.

Spending $10B on a company that looses $2B a year for a division with dead growth and making $2-3B a year.
Meanwhile, the same Sony management, forces PS to pay for Bungie, all while Playstation is pretty much Sony;s entire growth, is the fastest and most growing segment in Sony and accounts for 40% fo their entire profits.

When you have bean counters who have no sense of creative value because they themselves have never made anything of creative value this is what you get.

 

[Gediminas]

A lot of misunderstanding here:

Firstly, Paramount may have $30B in revenue but $20B of that is Linear TV revenue via stuff like CBS.
Sony, and any foreign company, is banned from ever owning one of the big 5 or so US TV networks.

So automatically, Sony's available revenue is $10B.
Oh and Sony will also get pursued by the FTC/DOJ for being one of the big 5 Hollywood studios and buying another Big 5.

Movies = $3B
Paramount+ = $6B

But its even worse than it looks.

• TV profit = $5B
• Movies profit = - $0.12B
• P+ profit = - $1.8B

So the TV side which Sony can't have is making $5B profit while what Sony may have is having a spectacular $2B LOSS

And the rumour is the offer is low $20B so for Sony to spend $10B on this is beyond a joke.
Disasatrous move by a creatively bankrupt Sony C class execs.

Spending $10B on a company that looses $2B a year for a division with dead growth and making $2-3B a year.
Meanwhile, the same Sony management, forces PS to pay for Bungie, all while Playstation is pretty much Sony;s entire growth, is the fastest and most growing segment in Sony and accounts for 40% fo their entire profits.

When you have bean counters who have no sense of creative value because they themselves have never made anything of creative value this is what you get.

cha cha cha, just smoked idiotic bean counter comments and bubble dweller..

 

[mibu no ookami]

A lot of misunderstanding here:

Firstly, Paramount may have $30B in revenue but $20B of that is Linear TV revenue via stuff like CBS.
Sony, and any foreign company, is banned from ever owning one of the big 5 or so US TV networks.

So automatically, Sony's available revenue is $10B.
Oh and Sony will also get pursued by the FTC/DOJ for being one of the big 5 Hollywood studios and buying another Big 5.

Movies = $3B
Paramount+ = $6B

But its even worse than it looks.

• TV profit = $5B
• Movies profit = - $0.12B
• P+ profit = - $1.8B

So the TV side which Sony can't have is making $5B profit while what Sony may have is having a spectacular $2B LOSS

And the rumour is the offer is low $20B so for Sony to spend $10B on this is beyond a joke.
Disasatrous move by a creatively bankrupt Sony C class execs.

Spending $10B on a company that looses $2B a year for a division with dead growth and making $2-3B a year.
Meanwhile, the same Sony management, forces PS to pay for Bungie, all while Playstation is pretty much Sony;s entire growth, is the fastest and most growing segment in Sony and accounts for 40% fo their entire profits.

When you have bean counters who have no sense of creative value because they themselves have never made anything of creative value this is what you get.

Your first mistake is in assuming that Sony can't own ANY element of Paramount's TV business. Your entire premise reveals a complete lack of understanding and what's worse is the people who who give you a thumbs up like you actually said something.

Sony can't own CBS, that doesn't mean it can't have a stake in it nor does it mean it can't own other channels under the paramount banner.

Sony can own up to 20% of CBS the broadcast channel and these same restrictions don't apply for cable channels, only broadcast channels.

As for Sony buying a "Big 5". Disney was allowed to buy Fox, there is no way the FTC would prevent Sony (smaller than Disney) from buying Paramount (smaller than Fox).

 

[RE4-Station]

Your first mistake is in assuming that Sony can't own ANY element of Paramount's TV business. Your entire premise reveals a complete lack of understanding and what's worse is the people who who give you a thumbs up like you actually said something.

Sony can't own CBS, that doesn't mean it can't have a stake in it nor does it mean it can't own other channels under the paramount banner.

Sony can own up to 20% of CBS the broadcast channel and these same restrictions don't apply for cable channels, only broadcast channels.

As for Sony buying a "Big 5". Disney was allowed to buy Fox, there is no way the FTC would prevent Sony (smaller than Disney) from buying Paramount (smaller than Fox).

Imagine if these supposed talks of Sony buying paramount turn out to be false and they were never planning buying to buy them. The meltdowns on this site over rumors is some of the most embarrassing stuff I've seen on the internet.
The Video game Industry has had record breaking Layoffs in the first 3 months of 2024 alone including 900 people from PlayStation getting laid off and yet people here think Sony investing in movies is a busted idea?

 

[enpleinjour]

Sony can own up to 20% of CBS the broadcast channel and these same restrictions don't apply for cable channels, only broadcast channels.

Spiltting an already declining asset is just a fools errand in extracting value. Truly a desperate move.

Disney was allowed to buy Fox, there is no way the FTC would prevent Sony (smaller than Disney) from buying Paramount (smaller than Fox).

Completely different FTC. There's 0 chance current FTC/DOJ do not go after Sony for this. 0.
And they've won 3 very similar cases: American Airline/Jet Blue, Jet Blue/Spirit, Penguin/SS

 

[mibu no ookami]

Spiltting an already declining asset is just a fools errand in extracting value. Truly a desperate move.



Completely different FTC. There's 0 chance current FTC/DOJ do not go after Sony for this. 0.
And they've won 3 very similar cases: American Airline/Jet Blue, Jet Blue/Spirit, Penguin/SS

How is it different?

Again, Sony Pictures is smaller than Disney and Paramount is smaller than Fox.

Again, we're talking about one specific asset here being the CBS broadcast channel. You were wrong, didn't concede that you were wrong, and continue to ignore the non-broadcast channels in which Sony can own outright.

So many of you are just trolling at this point.

 

[enpleinjour]

How is it different?

2019 FTC was under Republican Donald Trump, very pro-monopoly.
2020 onwards was Democrat Joe Biden who placed Lina Khan in charger of the FTC and made an executive order to push anti-trust.

Its the biggest change in US anti-trust for the past 40 years.
2020-2023 the FTC have gone after 28 mergers, 25 killed, 2 FTC lost and 1 on appeal.
2020-2023 the DOJ has gone after 11+ mergers, killed 4, 5 pending, DOJ lost 2.

We don't even need to get into non-merger antitrust, where the DOJ is going after board executives and forcing them to step down, FTC banning non-competes for workers or monopolisation lawsuits at Google, Amazon and Apple.

 

[JAHGamer]

So many of you are just trolling at this point.

You're by far one of the most ignorant and arrogant person I've ever seen on a forum, yet constantly accuse others of trolling.

 

[Eternal_Wings]

A lot of misunderstanding here:

Firstly, Paramount may have $30B in revenue but $20B of that is Linear TV revenue via stuff like CBS.
Sony, and any foreign company, is banned from ever owning one of the big 5 or so US TV networks.

So automatically, Sony's available revenue is $10B.
Oh and Sony will also get pursued by the FTC/DOJ for being one of the big 5 Hollywood studios and buying another Big 5.

Movies = $3B
Paramount+ = $6B

But its even worse than it looks.

• TV profit = $5B
• Movies profit = - $0.12B
• P+ profit = - $1.8B

So the TV side which Sony can't have is making $5B profit while what Sony may have is having a spectacular $2B LOSS

And the rumour is the offer is low $20B so for Sony to spend $10B on this is beyond a joke.
Disasatrous move by a creatively bankrupt Sony C class execs.

Spending $10B on a company that looses $2B a year for a division with dead growth and making $2-3B a year.
Meanwhile, the same Sony management, forces PS to pay for Bungie, all while Playstation is pretty much Sony;s entire growth, is the fastest and most growing segment in Sony and accounts for 40% fo their entire profits.

When you have bean counters who have no sense of creative value because they themselves have never made anything of creative value this is what

Kaz was definitely the best Sony CEO overall. He had vision and everything else you could wish for. If he was still in charge, he would have invested in PlayStation. I miss him.

 

[enpleinjour]

Also the mental gymnastics one has to do to justify pouring something like $10B into:

Paramount Plus which lost $1.8B a year
Paramout Studios which lost $0.2B a year
and get at best 25% stake of a declining TV buisness

All so Sony can prop Sony Pictures, a segment that makes a measly $0.8B in profit and has little to no growth for years.

Meanwhile, their number 1 segment, Playstation which accounts for ~40% of their profits and the majority of their revenue growth:

2011 - 2022 Sony Pictures Rev growth = $3.5B
2011 - 2022 Playstation Rev growth = $19B

can barely get a $2B merger done without Sony forcing Playstation to pay for the merger

 

[mibu no ookami]

You're by far one of the most ignorant and arrogant person I've ever seen on a forum, yet constantly accuse others of trolling.

The irony dude.

 

[mibu no ookami]

2019 FTC was under Republican Donald Trump, very pro-monopoly.
2020 onwards was Democrat Joe Biden who placed Lina Khan in charger of the FTC and made an executive order to push anti-trust.

Its the biggest change in US anti-trust for the past 40 years.
2020-2023 the FTC have gone after 28 mergers, 25 killed, 2 FTC lost and 1 on appeal.
2020-2023 the DOJ has gone after 11+ mergers, killed 4, 5 pending, DOJ lost 2.

We don't even need to get into non-merger antitrust, where the DOJ is going after board executives and forcing them to step down, FTC banning non-competes for workers or monopolisation lawsuits at Google, Amazon and Apple.

You realize that even with a different FTC, the precedent still stands?

Even if the FTC tries to block an acquisition it still needs to go through court. We just saw this with ABK.

There is no way that Sony buying Paramount would actually be blocked.

 

[Yurinka]

Firstly, Paramount may have $30B in revenue but $20B of that is Linear TV revenue via stuff like CBS.

Source, please?

Sony, and any foreign company, is banned from ever owning one of the big 5 or so US TV networks.

So automatically, Sony's available revenue is $10B.

Source, please?

Also, if this is remotely why Sony is supposed to be in preliminary talks to acquire Paramount Global instead of some of the subsidiaries they would be allowed to buy?

Also, how about if an US company buys it, but happens to be a Sony subsidiary or a joint venture with someone from US?

Are the Sony's legal lawyers supposed to be dumb in this fanfic? Monkeys maybe?

Oh and Sony will also get pursued by the FTC/DOJ for being one of the big 5 Hollywood studios and buying another Big 5.

Yep. As should happen if Sony ever decides to acquire and Paramount Global agrees to sell to Sony (something I think won't happen).

But ultimately should approve it, because even if they'd became marke leaders in US their market share would still be relatively low in a market with several big players and Sony not having enough market power to act as gatekeeper to block others from competing or performing any monopolistic action.

So the TV side which Sony can't have is making $5B profit while what Sony may have is having a spectacular $2B LOSS

No, the article says Sony is in preliminary talk to acquire Paramount Global, which as mentioned in a previos post makes $30B in revenue and doesn't have $2B loss (and btw has a gross profit of $10B/year).

And the rumour is the offer is low $20B so for Sony to spend $10B on this is beyond a joke.
Disasatrous move by a creatively bankrupt Sony C class execs.

Spending $10B on a company that looses $2B a year for a division with dead growth and making $2-3B a year.
Meanwhile, the same Sony management, forces PS to pay for Bungie, all while Playstation is pretty much Sony;s entire growth, is the fastest and most growing segment in Sony and accounts for 40% fo their entire profits.

When you have bean counters who have no sense of creative value because they themselves have never made anything of creative value this is what you get.

Well, the rest of the post also sounds like a poorly made fanfic.

 

[enpleinjour]

You realize that even with a different FTC, the precedent still stands?

Even if the FTC tries to block an acquisition it still needs to go through court. We just saw this with ABK.

There is no way that Sony buying Paramount would actually be blocked.

You're out of your depth here.
Disney/Fox did not go to courts.

And thats not how legal precedent works, especially in anti-trust. A District Court precedent is only there in that district. An appeal precedent is only there in that circuit. There are 94 districts and 12 Ciruits.

There are over 100 years of legal precedent in anti-trust, from district courts, appeal courts and Supreme courts, all across the US. The same principle works in the regulators favor in one era and in another is discarded by the courts. Anti-trust is more about convincing the current Judge on harms present than using prior cases as your main defense.

FTC/DOJ have had a strong recent record of winning court battles and ultimately killing deals in obvious horizontal monopolisation. I just named 3 cases, all similar to Sony/Paramount.

To make it even more obvious, the current DOJ is investigation Disney/WB/Universal for a joint sports streaming deal. Not even a merger.

Sony buying Paramount will be immediately blocked by the current FTC/DOJ.
The FTC has the power to drag this for 3 years, and kill the deal in the waiting period because few public companies are willing to wait 3 years for a deal to go through, especially if there are competing offers.

The FTC/DOJ already have a strong win rate in these types of deals.

5 Hollywood studios control ~80% of the US box office market. Hollywood is significantly more monopolised than gaming.

 

[mibu no ookami]

You're out of your depth here.
Disney/Fox did not go to courts.

And thats not how legal precedent works, especially in anti-trust. A District Court precedent is only there in that district. An appeal precedent is only there in that circuit. There are 94 districts and 12 Ciruits.

There are over 100 years of legal precedent in anti-trust, from district courts, appeal courts and Supreme courts, all across the US. The same principle works in the regulators favor in one era and in another is discarded by the courts. Anti-trust is more about convincing the current Judge on harms present than using prior cases as your main defense.

FTC/DOJ have had a strong recent record of winning court battles and ultimately killing deals in obvious horizontal monopolisation. I just named 3 cases, all similar to Sony/Paramount.

To make it even more obvious, the current DOJ is investigation Disney/WB/Universal for a joint sports streaming deal. Not even a merger.

Sony buying Paramount will be immediately blocked by the current FTC/DOJ.
The FTC has the power to drag this for 3 years, and kill the deal in the waiting period because few public companies are willing to wait 3 years for a deal to go through, especially if there are competing offers.

The FTC/DOJ already have a strong win rate in these types of deals.

5 Hollywood studios control ~80% of the US box office market. Hollywood is significantly more monopolised than gaming.

The courts were absolutely involved. The DOJ entered a consent decree approving the acquisition on the terms that the sports networks were sold.

You're confusing legal precedence with precedence. You should look up judicial deference to executive precedence. If this went to court, Sony would absolutely argue that the government allowed the creation of a much larger acquisition and that their acquisition and size are in no way creating an anti competitive situation. In fact that their ability to compete requires them to increase in size.

You say the FTC/DOJ would block this, but under what grounds exactly? You're talking completely out of your ass.

Again, Microsoft just bought the largest 3rd party publisher in gaming and the courts did not block the acquisition.

You mention the sports network creation, but you fail to recognize that would create a monopoly network that would make it impossible for others to compete. They're looking to create a sports cartel.

Sony Pictures one of the smallest movie studios buying paramount also one of the smallest studios does not create a cartel.

There are 5 studios, how many major phone companies are there? What happened to Sprint?

 

[Eternal_Wings]

I am actually for it America blocking this ridiculous deal of Sony, if they really should give an offer. Sony needs to wake up through a slap to see where the real cash is waiting. Unbelievable how Sony puts their most important division in tve second place. Hopefully Hiroki Totoki makes some real changes.

 

[enpleinjour]

You say the FTC/DOJ would block this, but under what grounds exactly? You're talking completely out of your ass.

Already told you:

Read about Penguin/SS
Read about JetBlue/Spirit
Read about AA/JetBlue

Again, Microsoft just bought the largest 3rd party publisher in gaming and the courts did not block the acquisition.

Gaming is nowhere near as concentrated as Hollywood.
The Judge for the MSFT case had a son working for MSFT.

Appeal courts have already heard the FTC appeal and we're waiting on a decision.

You mention the sports network creation, but you fail to recognize that would create a monopoly network that would make it impossible for others to compete. They're looking to create a sports cartel.

Impossible? No.
Sports rights bidding are backed by ver ybig buyers, such as Apple or Amazon and soon to be Netflix.
Dominant? Yes.

Sound familiar?

Sony Pictures one of the smallest movie studios buying paramount also one of the smallest studios does not create a cartel.

Nonsense. Just complete nonsense

Distributors Movie Breakdown for 2023

Distributors Movie Breakdown for 2023

www.the-numbers.com

1	Universal	42	$1,826,823,077	169,464,100	20.42%
2	Walt Disney	12	$1,446,951,947	134,225,597	16.17%
3	Warner Bros.	31	$1,412,786,409	131,056,253	15.79%
4	Sony Pictures	27	$982,565,789	91,147,108	10.98%
5	Paramount Pictures	10	$844,379,150	78,328,306	9.44%

5 companies control 70%+ of the market.

There are 5 studios, how many major phone companies are there? What happened to Sprint?

Current FTC/DOJ would block any merger between major phone companies lol.
T-mobile/Spirit happened under Trump admin, Trumps DOJ and FCC approved both deals lol

You're just further proving my point.

Stop projecting Donald Trump's admin onto the current FTC/DOJ.