Oct 21 2005
IBUS 579 Discussion 10/21
Strength of Movie Industry:
1. Infrastructure
2. Language
3. Big scale/economy of
4. History
5. Inability of competitor
6. Capital/money
7. Cultural appeal
Why Sale of Columbia So Unnerving to America
1. Sale of Culture
2. High trade deficit
3. “Spirit of Movie” lost: e.g. Japanese directors take over
4. Politician fanning the flame
5. Xenophobia/Protectionism
What Kind of Difficulties after Merger? Good for Sony or Columbia?
1. If this is an auto company sale, Japanese handling could have been much smoother.
1.1 If this is a Japanese studio, how would the deal turn out??
1.2 The question is: what made the difference: another country or another industry??
2. Managers got the money but didn’t have to account for them.
3. Why Columbia not merged with another studio? Need money only. Didn’t change their approach/management.
Exb. 10: Only Paramount is a studio. Not doing too well. All others are much diversified and wider in reach. Maybe it is a sign studio should be m/a-ed
Sony Had a Good Idea?
1. Yes but execution questionable.
2. Maybe the wrong company.
3. Financially is OK
4. Long term positive (see last paragraph), Telecomm is doing the same thing (vertical integration)
5. Underestimated the difficulty. Studio industry very dynamic.
Incomplete discussion due to schedule conflicts.