Why Microsoft Should Buy Sony Instead

We're now on the verge of a recession, and Sony and Microsoft are in trouble. Games are luxuries. Nobody "needs" them. Nor does anyone need such hi-tech features as the Blu-Ray, HDMI compatibility Sony's pushing. But there is a solution to Sony and Microsoft's woes: they should join forces to make one system, for less money. Yes, I'm dreaming big. With this whole Yahoo! merger in play, it will never happen. But both companies have invested too much in video games, and they want to win. So I ask, in case either will listen: why two nearly identical multimedia future-machines? Why not join up and make only one?

[Iamback]

What a bunch of BS!

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

lol.

[Hatchetforce]

Let's see, Sony has great hardware, the PS3 is on the way up, they are leading the field in HDTV research, hmm....Microsoft can't afford them. Bill Gates isn't Microsoft anymore.

Microsoft on the other hand has a new OS that is failing, Xbox360 on it's way to 3rd place. Yeah, that makes sense.

[therealwillie]

i do not like the sound of microsoft buying anything :)

[Tempist]

Talk about a troll.

"...Sony's online friend management and gameplay are an utter mystery, requiring endless navigation of its Byzantine menu structure."

- The XMB has won an award.
- Although Sony Only, it nicely makes for a universal menu system for all their products.

"Sure, buried inside the PS3 are plenty of amazing “potential technology” features -- like the ability to install Linux, or its wireless connectivity with the PSP -- but who cares?"

- Developers care, else why would the Linux community put their time and effort into it. It's a $400 super computer.
- It's helped to cure Cancer and solve gravity/physics problems.

Clearly, this man has some bias and has not done research.

[VirusE]

tempist "...Sony's online friend management and gameplay are an utter mystery, requiring endless navigation of its Byzantine menu structure." That isnt that far fetched or a biased statement in my opinion. If you own both a 360 and a p3 and you play both on a regular basis the ps3s idea of friend management will make you scratch your head a bit. Hopefull home will fix these issues.

[zambrota]

SONY is wayy bigger than MICROSFT

SONY's total asset is around 100 Billion $

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

MICROSOFT's total asset is just 63 Billion $

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

************PEOPLE PLEASE REPORT THE STORY AS SPAM************

N4G is now in a BETA state

SO THIS KIND OF ARTICLE IS CLEARLY UNACCEPTABLE

[nicholascage24]

story reported as Spam

[zambrota]

Sony has 100 Billion in total assets vs 63 Billion for MS

Sony is bigger than MS. I posted the links in the alternative section and so did Nick in the Open Zone.

please MARK this STORY as SPAM

[meepmoopmeep]

me too, the sound of MS buying something makes me cringe, i hope the talks with Yahoo don't end up in MS's favor.

[antoinetm]

Asset size isn't the only thing that matters.
you have to look at free cash flow, growth opportunities and stock market valuation.

[AzaziL]

When only one company is producing a certain product, what do we call that everybody??

A MONOPOLY!!!

Really, does that business concept ever work, even to this day, whenever anything is monopolized, it equals nothing but trouble for the consumer. Hell, the best example of monopolization in gaming comes from the biggest publisher of them all, Electronic Arts (EA, EA Sports, etc). One just has to look at the progression of the once great Madden series to easily see what happens when a company no longer has any competition. Nuff said.

[GIJeff]

couldn't afford sony's used underwear.

[KnowitAll]

Are you for reals?

"SONY is wayy bigger than MICROSFT

SONY's total asset is around 100 Billion $

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

MICROSOFT's total asset is just 63 Billion $

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/... "

************PEOPLE PLEASE REPORT THE STORY AS SPAM************

N4G is now in a BETA state

SO THIS KIND OF ARTICLE IS CLEARLY UNACCEPTABLE "

Do you even know what a business asset is? ........
to make it easier, to make it simple, to just make it so you can understand.

"A buisness asset is like ah lil notebook where sony adds its "money" of the inventory they hold is worth, also thier short term investments and technology(blue ray) and other stuff. But in all this is supposed to provide future benefits(blue ray)

but the funny part was

"why am i getting disagrees?
Sony has 100 Billion in total assets vs 63 Billion for MS

Sony is bigger than MS. I posted the links in the alternative section and so did Nick in the Open Zone.

please MARK this STORY as SPAM"

hahahaha
last time i checked microsoft was the 3rd richest company with a value of 230bil. Sony was way below in the 100's while nintendo was even deeper in the 300's

[KnowitAll]

Income Statements for Microsoft:
Sales $27.7B
EBITDA $13.1B
Income available to common $6.37B - The money made that year

Income Statements for Sony:
Sales $59.2B - this is higher because in reality sony does own more iventory(psp, walkmans and ps3 they can't sell) than microsoft
EBITDA $5.71B
Income available to common $72.9M - Everyone argues that ps3 or xbox sell the most, but whats the point when you don't even make a billion

Financial Strength for MS:
Current Ratio 4.04 (4 times more assets than liabilities)
Debt/Equity 0 no dept
Total Cash $38.7B (A F---load of cash!)

Financial Strength for Sony
Current Ratio 1.30 (More liabilities per asset)
Debt/Equity 0.50 (Quiet a bit of long term debt!)
Total Cash $6.65B (And a lot less cash!)

finnaly
Market Capitalization for MS $282.9B
Market Capitalization for Sony $50.3B

zambrota spread the word,
say whos the richest daddy

[IntelligentAj]

Stopped reading this article after he said Sony and Microsoft are in trouble. This has got to be the one of the dumbest statements I have heard. Both companies posted a profit in their previous fiscal year(MS more than Sony). Both have a good amount of cash on hand(MS more than Sony). Contrary to popular belief Vista is selling. Not as well as they expected but it IS selling and the rest of MS core business are doing well. Sony's electronics(Flat Panels and other consumer electronics) are doing well also as noted by the company posting $76 billion in revenue. As i've said before, if this sinking or failing then let me drown or give me perpetual F's.

[zambrota]

MS doesnt even have 23B dollars in cash. MS isnt one of the ten richest comapnies in the world. It is the 3rd biggest when it comes to having CASH or LIQUID ASSET for quick diposal

Others here is the breakdown

IknowITALL i dont think you even know the equation

TOTAL ASSETS = TOTAL LIABILITIES + SHAREHOLDER's EQUITY

LETS LOOK AT MICROSOFT's balance sheet************************* ****************************** * *******

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

PERIOD ENDING 30-Jun-07 30-Jun-06 30-Jun-05

Assets

Total Current Assets 40,168,000 49,010,000 48,737,000

Long Term Investments 10,117,000 9,232,000 11,004,000 <-- see this

Total Assets 63,171,000 69,597,000 70,815,000

***************************** ****************************** * *******

Total Liabilities 32,074,000 29,493,000 22,700,000

Total Stockholder Equity 31,097,000 40,104,000 48,115,000

Net Tangible Assets $25,459,000 $35,699,000 $44,307,000

TOTAL ASSETS = TOTAL LIABILITIES + SHAREHOLDERS EQUITY

NOW LETS LOOK AT SONY's balance sheet************************* ****************************** * ********

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

PERIOD ENDING 31-Mar-07 31-Mar-06 31-Mar-05

Assets

Total Current Assets 38,647,146 32,040,954 33,072,390

Long Term Investments 33,054,256 29,919,210 25,534,908 -< see this

Total Assets 99,589,077 90,165,901 88,341,630

Total Liabilities 70,938,093 62,933,159 61,647,487

Total Stockholder Equity 28,650,984 27,232,742 26,694,143

Net Tangible Assets $21,454,731 $19,868,087 $19,719,999

**SONY has more in future investments than MS . MS has total current asets but less future investments --10 B vs 31 billion for SONY****************

SONY has 38 B as TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS vs 40 B for MS

Current ratio = CURRENT assets/CURRENT liabities NOT TOTAL liabilities. MS total liabilities is 32B dollars. so if you divide 40/32 you get 1.2

DEBT RATIO for SONY takes into account its HEAVY LONG TERM INVESTMENTS 32B . MS has 10B in long term investments

MARKET CAPITALIZATION is irrelevant since it takes into account the commodies which are CURRENTLY IN CIRCULATION. Nintendo for instance has 10 Billion in total assets but they have over 60 billion dollar worth commodities in the market eg there are like 90million wiis and Dses and there could be 1 Billion DS+wii games in circulation.

same goes to MS . MS is smaller than SONY but MS has more commodities in circulation AT PRESENT. There could be 1 Billion windows user and those users might not have stopped using linux in PLACE OF totally discarding windows.

same cannot be said for SONY. since a TV made 20 years ago might not be in circulation AT PRESENT and has been completely disposed OFF. SONY produces goods whcih are more frequently disposed off than MS . take batteries for instance,laptops too which become obsolete after 5 years

MS is not shorter but much shorter than SONY.

SONY has more FUTURE investments . MS is based on contemporary performances NOT LONG TERM

[coolfool]

Here it is at the top of the news section.

People who approved this, SHAME ON YOU!!!!

[KnowitAll]

"MS doesnt even have 23B dollars in cash"
so how the hell did it come up with 40+bil for yahoo?

I know sony is bigger, it has more employers more locations(movie studios, recording studios).
Like you say "future investments"(which is blue ray,ps3,psp) but they have had different "future investments" since the early 1990's.
And yet each year microsoft makes 10-20times more in profit than sony.

Sony= Bigger Microsoft=Richer

a richer company is more powerful than a big company. Especially if its a small company.

[Coffin87]

WHAAT? MICROSOFT BUYING SONY???
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! !!!!!!!!

omg, this BY FAR THE BIGGEST BULLSH*T I'VE READ IN THE INTERNET up to now!!
rofl, this just too awesome..

how DUMB do you have to be to post sh*t like this.. it's really unbelievable.
(notice: i don't mean the n4g poster.)

[zambrota]

MS hasa around 19 B dollars in CASH. In order to buy yahoo they need to primarily loan 25 B dollars for the full purchase

YOu have already read articles which say that MS is TRYING TO ACQUIRE MONEY FOR YAHOO PURCHASE.

MS has more cash in Hand but has fewer assets and future investments

SONY has less in cash but huge future investments and ALSO A MUCH LARGER ASSET

SONY can also acquire money by LIQUIDATING FUTURE INVESTMENTS + THEIR CASH (6 B) to PURCHASE GOOGLE/YAHOO/AMD ---or whatever thing MS can buy

[KnowitAll]

Zambrota someone already posted this
So im just going to post his post since i don't thing i can explain it any better

"Microsoft's Market Capitalization is $260 Billion

Sony's Market Capitalization is $43 Billion (it used to be much higher, around $104 Billion, in fiscal 2000 - but they tanked for a few years after that).

Market Cap is the value of a company's total shares. Therefore, it is essentially the amount of money a company would need to come up with to buy all the shares of that company at face value. Since most investors won't sell their shares at face value (they want some profit) a buyout usually requires a company to pay a premium on top of the market cap for the shares.

Anyways, go ahead and check for yourself if you don't believe me. Just look up the stock of both companies, Market Cap is listed. MSFT & SNE are the symbols.

Total assets is irrelevant when buying out a company; the only time that would come into play is if the company being bought liquidized their assets to buy back some of their own shares - this would almost never happen, however, because the board of a publicly traded company is bound by law to make decisions which are in the best interest of shareholders. Liquidating ones assets is rarely, if ever, in the best interest of shareholders.

I'm not saying that MS could easily buy out Sony - although their proposed buyout of Yahoo for $44 billion is more than Sony's total market cap. My point is that you're wrong - MS is a bigger company.

Why am I even posting this? It's not like you kids in the Open Zone even care about truth or reason. Flame on. "

Zambrota let it die

I can understand people getting offended over culture,race,religion but not over a dam freaking oppinion about your freaking favorite company getting bought by another freaking company. Who the hell cares if sony is bought by aol, or yahoo (since yahoo is worth more market cap wise)

[Relcom]

Right....

Bullsh1t

[ruibing]

All Sony needs is some better software developers, which they can easily get from Apple or any other sources.

[wageslave]

@2.2

Sony and Apple make a lot more sense. Sony's RIAA and MPAA divisions are a big part of their business.

MS has repeatedly stayed out of the Media Contenet creation. MS is a software and technology firm, while Sony is a electronics and media firm.

They are too different. Its an interesting idea to consider -- but this article is littered with inaccuracies and trolls.

[titntin]

Quite possibly the worst argued opinionated BS I've ever read! Bet he gets tons of hits... but I'm not going to help him with an apporval..:(

[Iamback]

neither will I

[scrillakiller]

what a load of u know what.sony doesnt need ms and their garbage

[predator]

sony hardware + ms live software = one hell of a machine

[predator]

i didnt say game software did i? i said the software behind LIVE, and dont give me that [email protected] that the 360 has no games coming out either

[BenzMoney]

Holy crap - how is it that you're still allowed to post in the "GamerZone"?! You want to know what's a joke? This whole "moderated" N4G "GamerZone" thing is a joke! Your comments prove that.

[ravinash]

Hardware on PS3 - yes
O/S on PS3 - yes, I'd keep that, I much prefer the layout than the one 360 has.
Online experience - Live for now, but PSN can use most of the ideas from that and make it new, plus things like home make it more interesting....so what would be in it for Sony to merge???

[VirusE]

ravinash i fully agree with your comments and we all know those that don't are ps3 only owners. Its like saying what is better a BMW m3 or a mustang, they are not even close in terms of functionality and ease of use. Everyone that i know that owns both prefers live. It has had so many more years to mature than ps3s online experience and is much easier to use. That being said i like knowing that my ps3 will not red ring on me. I have had 4 red ring incidents at this point and i am starting to get a little pissed off. Twice was a coincidence 3 times was frustrating but 4 times is down right insane. If it weren’t for the fact that the 360 has so many more AAA titles than the ps3 i would seriously think about crushing it with a hammer. My 360 is quite possibly the least reliable thing I have ever owned next to my 04 GTO. MS is a software company and that is what they do best, sony is a hardware company and that is what they do best. If they did team up they could make one hell of a system. Imagine what ps3 games would look like if MS had made the development tools for it. Everyone knows the biggest flaw with the 360 is that the hardware design sucks and everyone knows that the biggest flaw with the ps3 is the development tools and support for said tools suck. It would be a match made in heaven in my opinion.

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

because they CANT beat them.

it`s that simple.

[aftrdark21]

Microsoft's motto
"If you can't beat em, Buy em!"

[kalistyles]

First, I don't think Sony would ever go for that kind of nonsense. Their quality in hardware to be mixed with the faulty MS hardware would not fly with them. I think Sony buying out the XBOX brand would make more sense. At least it would give them a product that wont overheat and they would probably just discard it anyway. Sony and home consoles is just meant to be and everyone knows it. The software part of the article is just ridiculous. Sony has the software coming in now and they have the most exclusive studios. More than the MS and Nintendo combined in the world. So you know the games are just going to be flooding the market sooner than later. Sony FTMFW!

[SSCOOLCHEA]

How big would nintendo would have been if they didnt stab sony in the back ? because the nintendo name would have still been used if they would have merge ......

[Cwalat]

the biggest bullshiiiiett...

fanboyism in all its glory

[nicholascage24]

because of the links above

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/...

Sony is bigger than MS - FACT

[zambrota]

everyone please do the same too

[Kleptic]

Apparently this guy hasn't been an Xbot for very long though...

MS was invovled with the Dreamcast from the beginning...and was working directly with Sega to make what ultimately become Dreamcast Live of sorts...

and MS pulled out of it just a few months before the DC shipped...knowing that a unified service of this kind would directly attack the PC gaming industry, one of the strongest areas of a PC's superiority over any other type of home computer...leading to their decision to create their own console...if they were going to give an option that could ultimately make less people game using Windows...it makes perfect business sense for them to have complete control over said 'option'...rather than be in a partnership with some other company...

furthermore...I agree with the rest of you...MS and Sony would not make good lovers...Sony would be pushing open ended hardware with standard protocols for connecting external devices...and MS would be charging left and right for everything on the online service, ironically stuff that still is free in the PC environment...

the PSN right now is hardly as bad as this guy made it sound...it lacks 1 major feature of XBL, which is unified messaging/invites/joins through the xmb...it has it, it just isn't unified yet across all online games...yet the PSN has tons more stuff coming within just this year...Home is going to take unified gaming communitys somewhere that nothing has ever touched...while its still a question on how fun it will be, there is no denying that it has more features than anyone would ever need...

[BigBoy2000]

that's quite possibly the most off the wall, stupid sh!t article I've ever read! This guy has his head in the sand... last I checked, the gaming industry was doing just fine. Recession my @ss!

[ravinash]

Even when sitting at home with no job, you still want to play game :-)

[kalistyles]

Couldn't agree with you more Anego. I figured I would put this BS out there there to see where people stand with it.

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

expect some CLASSIC comments.

[kalistyles]

some classic comments will be on the way. 3...2...1...blastoff!!

[mighty_douche]

LOL... is this a joke? no approveal from me, no sir.

Lets be honest, M$ couldnt afford to buy Sony anyway.

[games4fun]

would be a bad move on both sides the ammount of money it would take would cripple microsoft, then millions/billions? wasted possibly on optimizing and getting rid of parallel sectors then not to mention sony sells more than just gaming machines microsoft wouldnt know how to manage hardware at all.

It should actually read why microsoft should attempt to merger with sony but sony would rather merger with as mentioned before google/apple at least with those 2 they dont have as many paralell markets (cept pc) and could be mutually beneficial i think sony would merge with nintendo before microsoft as well just because they probably have a better relationship with nintendo

[Grahammad]

Considering Microsoft's revenue last year was 51.12 billion US and Sony's revenue was 76.201 billion US, I think Microsoft would finally realize that even though they have deep pockets they can't just buy ANYONE.

[moparful99]

Graham I agree that competition is exactly what the video game industry needs, its what fueled 2007 into becoming the best year in gaming ever. This sets up 2008 to be even better, but I think people object because microsoft has a bad reputation of not only wanting that number one spot but holding the only spot in every market they enter. They love to monopolize markets and when they do this the quality and innovation of their products falls off sharply I mean look at the turtle like pace that the windows format is evolving. I think alot of people are skeptical of microsoft and their intentions.

[DTClown]

What a tard. There are not enough idiot adjectives to describe his stupidity! shaking head.

Sony has from the time they stepped into the gaming arena, to the end of time, be the king of next gen gaming. DON'T bring your Wii sh!t here either. That novelty will prove to be a a passing fad. REAL gamers want systems that kick REAL butt. I'm 38 years old and I go to tell ya, I've been SICK of Mario and the bunch for over a decade now! Is THAT what you want in gaming...more of the same? HELL NO! I mean COME ON, Nintendo, come up with a NEW IP will ya!

[Kenshin_BATT0USAI]

""There are not enough idiot adjectives to describe his stupidity! ""

LMFAO that was good, but yeah I full heartily agree with you.

[SEAN1617]

merge and wipe MS off the earth lol

[Grahammad]

Forget Apple and Google, how about Wal Mart, ExxonMobile and General Motors go together and by all 3; Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft? Hell, while they are at it they can buy all the different developer studios too. It's about as likely as Microsoft buying Sony.

[wageslave]

Why would you want that?

All irrational nonsense aside, what would happen if Sony and Apple became bigger players in the market?

You can kiss your fair use rights goodbye for starters. Steve Jobs sits on the board of Disney, and is the largest shareholder. Disney is a major copyright-zealot, perhaps responsible for the current regime (DMCA and other such nonsense) more than any other.

Sony and Disney (Jobs) together would be terrible.

Further, do you really want Google continuing its monopoly on the search market? I dont.

There is a certain level of irrational anti-MS hate that this site has, but for the life of me, I cannot see why you'd want to "wipe MS off the planet" and replace it with something that would be universally bad for the nation, the technology industry, the market and for you as a customer.

Just totally ridiculous.

[Grahammad]

Agreed, besides as everyone here should know competion is what drives markets like this forward. Without the competion from Sony or Nintendo, Microsoft would probably not put as much effort into its gaming sector as they have (especially like it has in the past year) and I'm sure the same would be true for both Sony and Nintendo as well. Whether some people on here like to admit it or not we need that competion for gaming to evolve. I'm not specifically naming anyone here by the way so please no one take offence, it's just a general trend.

[Says you]

to begin with and again why would sony want to have there software in there hardware?? thats suicide!.

[jinn]

microsoft should just by the world and then 30% of the worlds light would turn red

[cjp4eva]

We'd have a red africa LOL gg.

[vloeistof]

... no

[Neo218]

Is this guy stupid or what. Why the hell would Sony let Microsoft buy them. Microsoft is becoming more bankrupt than ever,with failed 360 systems, A rushed Vista OS, and a crappy search engine. They need to just start over not buy other companys or try to buy ideas. They should stick to what they no best and that is software simple as that. I see Microsoft becoming the next Sega in the video game business. Just creating games and thats that.

[Kleptic]

haha bankrupt?...what?...

MS is hitting some rough spots that they normally have avoided...but dude...a 1 billion dollar warranty extension is like giving a homeless dude some change to them...

and pretty much almost every person alives misses the point with Vista...uptake of the new OS is relatively poor compared to the same period of time with XP...but it is STILL included in every new PC purchased...MS STILL makes pots of cash with every PC...

People always think MS is done because outright retail sales of Vista are crappy...meaning people that already owned a PC before the switch to Vista, are not very quick to purchase a standalone copy...thats all...

nearly 95% of home computers sold have a Microsoft made Operating System...the company is just about as far from bankrupt as you can get, despite all this negative news about them...

[phony force slayer]

overall they are making billions how can they be bankrupt wene they have got 287.66 billion (i think go check the other story on news for gaming should be there on xbox portable) ne wayz bak to the subject
you must be living in your dream world allthough the media is making microsoft look like there loosing money there realling gaining it
look at the sales figuers on the web site
www.microsoftprofit.com

[heyheyhey]

i have tried hard...... but it still dont understand how this falls under the category of "NEWS" or anything else for that matter

M$ might be rich, but they sure as hell aren't that rich- Sony is a pretty huge company too

Someone should buy Nintendo though, because lets face it- in a couple years they will be back to being a crap company

The whole "one console" dream might seem cool cause you would be combining Halo, Zelda, MP, Mario and all of sonys franchises into one machine, but competition is what drives the industry and without it everyone would be so much more worse off

[Buubar]

I wouldn't want a PSBox 360 thankyou very much..

[bootsielon]

Then I'm in. I'd hate to see stagnation in the industry, all due to the Wii's lack of technology.

[wageslave]

Wii is going after a different market. There will always be a high-end gamer willing to pay $500 for the latest and greatest technology.

Dont worry, Wii isnt going to stagnate the market. They're simply dropping out of the race.

[Bleucrunch]

I dont know where microsoft would get all this money from....M$ is worth around $238 billion hardly enough to buy Sony and why would sony screw themselves by doing that and turn themselves from inovation to stealin....

[PSWe60]

This article is beyond ridiculous.
Especially about the friends list, all everyone talks about is how BAD the Wii friends management is with it's codes and lack of games that actually have online play.
PS3 has a very good online interface, several online games. Wii has none of that, it's a disgrace.
The 360, ofcourse, is the pinacle of online game play. If anything, the Wii needs to follow Sony, fix everything that is serious lacking on their console, get the online interface up and running and get 3rd party developers from releasing crap.
Wii may be ahead for now, but Sony is making the comeback or the century.