MGM shareholders approve sale to Sony

[BJ_M]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer shareholders voted overwhelmingly on Friday to approve the film studio's sale to a Sony Corp.-led consortium that includes cable television giant Comcast Corp.

At a brief meeting in Century City, 99.8 per cent of shares were voted in favour of the sale, company officials said after the vote.

The sale, valued at nearly $5 billion (all figures U.S.), is expected to close some time in the first half of 2005, contingent on approval by regulatory agencies.

Achieving a shareholder majority in favour of the sale was not a question coming into the vote, however.

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who through his Tracinda Group owns 74 per cent of MGM's outstanding shares, had already backed the deal, which is expected to net him about $2.1 billion.

At the meeting, MGM chairman and CEO Alex Yemenidjian stressed the studio would remain "a thriving independent company and a vibrant important player in this industry."

He added that MGM will continue to be based in Los Angeles, with Sony Pictures co-producing and distributing MGM's films. Comcast will also establish new cable television channels carrying Sony and MGM content, he said.


Sony will then control about 60-70% of all films directly or indirectly ..


i guess what standards studios will use will become a moot point ?

[Capmaster]

Doesn't Sony already own Columbia Pictures, and their film archives?

[BJ_M]

Sony - where to start? I did a little research --

Sony founders Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita built Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (or Totsuko) from a radio repair shop founded in 1946 into the "world's most reputable consumer electronics company" that is "neither wholly Japanese nor entirely Western" surely warm hearts at Sony's public relations department. Ibuka was the master engineer. Morita was the marketing and management genius. In addition to those skills, each co-founder used links to Japan's prewar and wartime establishment to supplement seed capital of less than $1,000.

In Japan's postwar rubble, Ibuka and Morita moved into territory occupied by established but discredited and devastated electronics firms. They combined their contacts and the notion of employees as family with some very un-Japanese ideas, including a corporate structure that encouraged bottom up innovation. PlayStation, currently Sony's most profitable division, is the latest example of a single employee spearheading a radical corporate turn. The Trinitron color television and the Walkman are other examples of how Sony's open culture gave rise to blockbuster products.


Epic and Columbia music
Columbia pictures
CBS Records
SCE (SonY Computer Entertainment Inc)
InterTrust (DRM)
Fidelio capital (owned with philips) (owns Intertrust above)
Movielink (this is so bad - it cant be believed)
My Sony Personal Information Management
Sony Technology Center -- Pittsburgh
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (partial)
The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. (partial)
Anymusic
BMG Music Entertainment
Provident Distribution (100% owned by sony - christian music distro)
Provident Music Group (50% owned with RCA)
Aiwa (100% sony)
Sony BMG
Playstation
SMEJ
Symbian (partial)
Sony Ericsson
CDNow.com (100% owned but hidden ownership)
Sony Electronics Hua'nan Co Ltd
Sony China
Sony joint venture with samsung (samsung makes ALL sony LCDs now)
Intervision (advertising company)
Airboard (hand held portable web surfing tv company)
Barracuda Hold
Swar Mala Entertainment (india)
SME Holdings
Arista
Ariola
Frontage Inc.
TriStar pictures
Sony huge disc-pressing plant in Terre Haute, Ind.
Sony Life Insurance Co., Ltd.
Sony EMCS Corporation
Sony Marketing (Japan) Inc
Sony Americas Holding Inc
Sony Corporation of America
Sony Electronics Inc
Sony Music Entertainment Inc
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc
Sony Europe Holding B.V
Sony Europe G.m.b.H
Sony Global Treasury Services Plc
Sony Holding (Asia) B.V
Sony Electronics Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd
Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Sony of Canada Ltd. Ontario, Canada
Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.California, U.S.A
Sony Electronics Inc. Delaware, U.S.A
Sony Latin America Inc. Florida, U.S.A
Sony Magnetic Products Inc. of America Alabama, U.S.A
Sony Music Entertainment Inc. Delaware, U.S.A
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Delaware, U.S.A
Sony Argentina S.A. Argentine
Sony Comercio e Industia Ltda. Brazil
Sony Componentes Ltda. Manaus, Brazil
Sony da Amazonia Ltda. Manaus, Brazil
Sony Chile Ltda. Chile
Sony de Mexico S.A. de C.V. Tlalnepantla, Mexico
Sony de Mexicali, S.A. de C.V. Mexicali, Mexico
Sony Nuevo Laredo,S.A. de C.V. Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
Sony de Tijuana Oeste, S.A. de C.V. Tijuana, Mexico
Sony Corporation of Panama, S. A. Panama
Sony Puerto Rico, Inc. Puerto Rico
Sony Austria GmbH. Austria
Sony DADC Austria A.G. Austria
Sony Service Centre (Europe) N.V. Bruxelles, Belgium
Sony Overseas S.A. Switzerland
Sony Czech, spol. s.r.o. Czech Sony Berlin G.m.b.H. Berlin, Germany
Sony Deutschland G.m.b.H. KöIn, Germany
Sony Europe GmbH Germany
Sony Nordic A/S Denmark
Sony Espana S.A. Barcelona, Spain
Sony France S.A Paris, France
Sony United Kingdom Ltd. Middlesex, U.K.
Sony Global Treasury Service Plc London, U.K.
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited London, U.K.
Sony Hungaria kft Hungary
Sony Italia S.p.A. Italy
Sony Benelux B.V. Netherlands
Sony Europa B.V. Netherlands
Sony Logistics Europe B.V. Netherlands
Sony Poland Sp.z.o.o. Poland
Sony Portugal Ltda. Portugal
Sony Slovakia s r. o. Slovakia
Sony Eurasia Pazarlama A.S. Turkey
Sony (China) Ltd Pe-king, China
Beijing Suohong Electronics Co., Ltd. Pe-king, China
Shanghai Suoguang Visual Products Co., Ltd. Shanghai, China
Shanghai Suoguang Electronics Co., Ltd. Shanghai, China
Sony Electronics (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. Chiangsu, China
Sony Corporation of Hong Kong Ltd. Hong Kong
Sony International (Hong Kong) Ltd. Hong Kong
PT. Sony Electronics Indonesia Indonesia
Sony India Limited India
Sony Electronics of Korea Corporation Masan, Korea
Sony Korea Corporation Seoul, Korea
Sony Electronics (Malaysia) SDN. BHD. Penang, Malaysia
Sony Technology (Malaysia)SDN.BHD. Bangui, Malaysia
Sony Philippines, Inc. Philippines
Sony Electronics (Singapore)Pte. LTD. Singapore
Sony Magnetic Products (Thailand) Co., Ltd. Thailand
Sony Mobile Electronics (Thailand) Co., Ltd. Thailand
Sony Semiconductor (Thailand) Co., Ltd. Thailand
Sony Siam Industries Co., Ltd. Thailand
Sony Australia Limited Australia
Sony New Zealand Ltd. New Zealand
Sony GULF FZE UAE
Sony Vietnam Ltd.
Sony Global Solutions Inc. Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
Sony Enterprise Co.,Ltd. Minato-ku, Tokyo
Sony Energy Devices Corporation Koriyama-shi, Fukushima
Sony Chemicals Corporation Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
Sony Communication Network Corporation Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Minato-ku, Tokyo
Sony Supply Chain Solutions,Inc. Ebisu, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Sony Siroisi Semiconductor Inc.
Sony Life Insurance Co,. Ltd. Minato-ku, Tokyo
Sony Semiconductor Kyushu Corporation Sawara-ku, Fukuoka-shi,
Sony Assurance Inc. Ota-ku, Tokyo
Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) Inc. Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Sony PCL Inc.
Sony Human Capital Corporation
Sony Finance International, Inc. Minato-ku, Tokyo
Sony Facility Management Corporation Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
Sony Plaza Co.,Ltd.
Sony Broadcast Media Co., Ltd Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
Sony Broadband Solutions Corp.
Sony Marketing Co., Ltd. Minato-ku, Tokyo
Sony Manufacturing Systems Corporation
Sony Miyagi Corporation Nakada-cho, Tome-gun, Miyagi-ken
Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

[Nilfennasion]

Is anyone else concerned by how much closer this brings us to one corporation in control of everything? Much as I love the Columbia-Tristar home entertainment wing (they released Bad Santa here, and have some wonderful people working for them), the idea of only Sony owning the content frightens me. It reminds me of the scenario in Rollerball, where nobody knows who makes all the decisions, no matter how detrimental.

Although, admittedly, I still prefer Sony dominating IT and entertainment markets to Microsoft. At least Sony respect and follow what have become open standards (the CDDA specifications, for instance).

[lordsmurf]

Sony respect standards?

Optical disc over CD-R (data)
Minidisc over CD-R (audio)
Memory stick over CompactFlash
DVD+R over DVD-R

.... hardly.

[SilverBlade]

Sony respect standards?

Optical disc over CD-R (data)
Minidisc over CD-R (audio)
Memory stick over CompactFlash
DVD+R over DVD-R

.... hardly.

Don't forget to add: Atrac over mp3/ogg/wma/asf/aac
Betamax over VHS

sucessful company, unsucessful technologies

[BJ_M]

sony HAS made some bad marketing blunders to be sure ..

but talk about media giants -- dont forget Time-Warner consortium .. just as scary really, except they dont make electronics ..

[BJ_M]

and betamax is one regard WAS a successful technology, as it was the foundation of Beta and Beta SP pro series -- the MOST successful video format ever for broadcast .

[Nilfennasion]

By respecting standards, I mean they don't jump in and attempt to corrupt other people's standards. Anyone who remembers Microsoft's Java will know what I mean.

I have never seen Optical Disc, but I use Minidisc, and I can not think of a better replacement for the outdated cassette. ATRAC3 is also far more transparent than MP3 can ever hope for. Although I have a minor hearing problem, an ATRAC3 rendition of music has none of the distortion, particularly in lower registers, that I expect as part and parcel of all the other lossy codecs, DTS notwithstanding.

Memory Stick is just one of those devices that every company has tried to market to tie consumers to them.

And really, you make DVD+R over DVD-R sound like a bad thing. I have never had any of the problems I've had with DVD-R when I play back DVD+R. Not once. Not to mention that DVD-R is pushed as the standard by the tyrannical DVD Consortium, which for me is reason enough to support DVD+R.

Having multiple competing technologies is not such a bad thing in the sense that user consensus at least chooses the better technologies.

[adam]

Well I can't say I'm surpised, MGM has been in financial difficulty for a while and had already committed to selling off the distribution rights to all their older films...but I didn't realize Sony had such controlling numbers in the film industry. Its kinda scary, but I'm thinking that alot of those subsidiaries probably operate pretty autonomously.

[yoda313]

Sony respect standards?

Optical disc over CD-R (data)
Minidisc over CD-R (audio)
Memory stick over CompactFlash
DVD+R over DVD-R

.... hardly.

Don't forget to add: Atrac over mp3/ogg/wma/asf/aac
Betamax over VHS

sucessful company, unsucessful technologies

Hello,

Actually on its newest generation walman digital players they FINALLY will allow MP3 on them - to catch up to IPOD

Kevin