OT - Sell your Sony Stock?

[oftheherd]

Sony used to be the 800 pound gorilla in the electronics industry. Innovative, reasonalby priced, good products. Lately, they have been slammed for putting root kits on their CDs "accidently" both in the press and in some state courts.

If that wasn't bad enough, they have touted Blu-ray and at a recent demonstration of the fabulous product, didn't actually use it. I used to think they were really great and would get their product over others. Now - not! Sad really.

Is this an example of what bean counters do to corporations these days or am I just too cynical?

http://gearlog.com/blogs/gearlog/arc.../16/11622.aspx

[Will]

As any master card adverts would say:

Priceless

[kvanderlaag]

I'd be afraid to plug an alpha dslr into my computer.

[oftheherd]

Originally Posted by Will

As any master card adverts would say:

Priceless

Hadn't thought of that. I'll bet there are lots of little vignettes one could think of.

Originally Posted by kvanderlaag

I'd be afraid to plug an alpha dslr into my computer.

Yes, and one shouldn't have to when dealing with a company like Sony. But who knows how many other "accidents" they have had.

[Will]

The marketing or PR manager will get shoot over this.

Just think how many Techno stuffs are first presented like this?

[Kevin]

I have stopped buying Sony products ever since they wanted to charge me 650 Euro to fix my Mini-DV camcorder. There was a funny internal feedback noise while recording and the internal microphone jack was not working well.

650 Euro?? You bet!! And they lost a customer for life.

[planetjoe]

Actually, some of the commentary over that blog post seem to suggest that the claim of fraud might have been somewhat hasty. Still, the demo was held in a pub, so anything's likely to have happened.

That said, I'm not buying into Sony anytime soon, what with all the rootkits and poor pricing policies on their new console system.


--joe.

[zuikologist]

If it is of any interest, I receive economic advice as part of my job. The recommendations over tha last three years has been to buy Samsung and Toyota stock over anything else in their sectors.

Originally Posted by oftheherd

Sony used to be the 800 pound gorilla in the electronics industry. Innovative, reasonalby priced, good products. Lately, they have been slammed for putting root kits on their CDs "accidently" both in the press and in some state courts.

If that wasn't bad enough, they have touted Blu-ray and at a recent demonstration of the fabulous product, didn't actually use it. I used to think they were really great and would get their product over others. Now - not! Sad really.

Is this an example of what bean counters do to corporations these days or am I just too cynical?

http://gearlog.com/blogs/gearlog/arc.../16/11622.aspx

1) Sony remains the 800 pound gorilla in the electronics industry.

2) It is also a very large gorilla in the entertatinment industry (e.g. Sony Pictures and Sony Music).

3) It has a increasingly dominant position in the imaging industry (including digicams or all types - think dSLRs, EVFs etc).

4) It retains a very strong market share in the audio and video industries and is one of the dominant producers of HDTVs etc.

Any other industries you care to consider?

Sony will not rise and fall on the success or failure of Blu Ray (ever heard of Betamax?) and anyone who buys or sells stock shares based on blogs deserves whatever portolio performance (s)he obtains!

[zuikologist]

The advice is from heavyweight US institutions, so we are not into blog territory. Depending on your view of the world, Samsung is now another 800lb gorilla which is at least competitive with Sony et al.

[oftheherd]

Originally Posted by copake_ham

1) Sony remains the 800 pound gorilla in the electronics industry.

2) It is also a very large gorilla in the entertatinment industry (e.g. Sony Pictures and Sony Music).

3) It has a increasingly dominant position in the imaging industry (including digicams or all types - think dSLRs, EVFs etc).

4) It retains a very strong market share in the audio and video industries and is one of the dominant producers of HDTVs etc.

Any other industries you care to consider?

Sony will not rise and fall on the success or failure of Blu Ray (ever heard of Betamax?) and anyone who buys or sells stock shares based on blogs deserves whatever portolio performance (s)he obtains!

Perhaps saying they used to be was premature. The comment was an attention getter as much as anything else. However I don't think they are what they used to be either, strong as they are. And their rootkit fiasco has I am sure lost them some business. How much? I wouldn't have any way to know, but it just stands to reason. I won't put Sony CDs or DVDs in my computers. Nor will I buy those or other products. Granted, that is just me I can account for, but I have heard others say the same.

If that attitude doesn't float your boat, good for you.

I am not surprised to hear people recommend Toyota and Samsung. Both have sold a large number of the public on their products. Samsung has even managed to survive some Korean scandals, but of course most Korean companies do. Hyundai is going through one right now, but I certainly don't expect them to go under. Sony won't likely go under either. If there are problems in acceptance of their new technologies, their stock performance could suffer. You mentioned Betamax. Their stock performance had to have suffered from that.

And, truth in commenting; I don't dabble in stocks other than through my agency retirement plan and they do all the deciding there. So I am rather lacking in knowledge on big time finance and economics. So, your comments are taken in good faith.

Actually, I was curious about the Samsung and Toyota comment.

One company is Korean HQ'd and primarily an electronics goods producer.

The other is Japanese-based (although with massive off-shore [e.g. USA and China] production facilities) and an automotive company.

So was this advice to buy Asian companies? Rather undifferentiated investment advice based on geography.

Let see, Japan embarked on a protracted recessionary period commencing about 1991 and it still has not returned to market peaks. Korean companies are generally closely-held and prone to "iffy" accounting. The Asian Financial Crisis was in 1997 when the Emerging Tigers tanked. And if you're only now discovering China - you've missed the "smart money" run up!

[Cooki]

[quote=copake_ham]
1) Sony remains the 800 pound gorilla in the electronics industry.
Any other industries you care to consider?
[endquote]


They even own the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game.