How Much Is Sony In Debt
Sony Fabricated A 22 Billion Dollar Mistake (Twice)
Superheroes could have added super zeros to Sony's profits
Nobody gives a shit about whatsoever of the other Curiosity characters. Go back and practise a deal for simply Spider-Man.
That quote was allegedly said by the head of Sony to Yair Landau in 1998. In terms of quotes that have aged poorly, in that location aren't too many every bit bad as this i. Or as costly.
That decision may have price Sony over $22 billion dollars in acquirement.
According to Spider-Human being, "with great power comes great responsibleness," and it seems the Sony head may accept misused his power.
Bargain Buy: Take One
Marvel is a huge cinematic brand now, simply the instance was very dissimilar back in 1996.
The company was $700 million in debt, its share price had dropped from $35.75 in 1993 to just $2.37, and it had been forced to file for defalcation. A court-appointed trustee was given the task of trying to sell off Curiosity.
Apparently, you tin't plough to eBay or Facebook market for transactions like this, and and then the trustee made direct approaches to several companies. These included Warner Brothers, which owned DC Comics. And an approach was made to Sony.
Every business the trustee met with declined the offer. No one wanted Marvel.
Bargain Buy: Have Two
Two years later, Curiosity Entertainment was now nether the command of Ike Perlmutter but still looking for funds.
Sensing an opportunity, a young Sony executive named Yair Landau approached Marvel, offering to learn Spiderman from them. Landau — and Sony — believed they could bulldoze toy sales on the back of movie releases. They had an agreement in place with the toy manufacturer Hasbro, where Hasbro would handle consumer products and trade, and Sony would brand movies.
Spider-Man was key to this strategy.
Perlmutter had an attractive counteroffer for Landau. Non just would he sell them Spider-Man, just again, he offered Sony the rights to every single Marvel character they still endemic for $25 1000000. This included characters such as Black Panther, Iron Man, Emmet-Man, and Thor.
It seemed like a reasonable offering, and Landau went dorsum to his superiors at Sony, suggesting they take it. The response will get down in business history:
Nobody gives a shit about whatever of the other Marvel characters. Go back and practice a deal for only Spider-Man.
Landau went back to Perlmutter to negotiate a bargain involving just Spiderman, and somewhen, in 1999, Sony and Marvel agreed on a deal.
Sony bought the film rights to Spider-Man from Marvel Studio for $xx million. Marvel would likewise earn five% of pic revenue from the franchise, and the two companies would split the profits evenly from Spider-Human merchandise.
Steve Jobs seals a Disney deal
One person did meet the potential in the leftover Curiosity characters — Disney CEO Bob Iger.
Iger wrote in his volume, Ride of a Lifetime, "early in my time working for Michael [Eisner]; I attended a staff lunch in which he floated the idea of acquiring [Marvel]; a handful of executives around the table objected. It would tarnish the Disney brand."
When Iger took over from Michael Eisner as Disney CEO in 2005, he wanted to purchase the Curiosity brand. To assist in the conquering, he asked his friend Steve Jobs. Jobs was on the board of Disney at the time and chosen Perlmutter to vouch for Disney.
"Later, after we'd airtight the bargain, Ike told me that he'd still had his doubts and the telephone call from Steve fabricated a big difference. He said you were true to your word,' Ike said."
Thanks to the insight of Bob Iger and with some help from Steve Jobs, Disney ended up purchasing Marvel for $4 billion in 2009.
Joint custody of Spider-Human being
While many of the Marvel characters were unwanted, Spider-Man was both popular and profitable. Disney wanted a share of the Spider-Man character also.
In 2011, Disney bought 100% of Spider-Man merchandising rights dorsum from Sony while giving upwards its v% stake in box office profits.
The multi-year content licensing agreement gave Sony financial and artistic control of Spider-Man films, while Disney fabricated millions from Spider-Man toys and Disneyland rides.
It was like joint custody over a kid.
The deal also gives Disney the rights to many of Sony's older films, including Spider-Man titles allowing them to exist added to Disney +.
A blockbuster fault
Before nosotros stop with the numbers that show how much Sony lost with its decision, permit's try and brand them experience a little improve.
By showing them, they are not alone in the Business organization Conclusion Hall of Shame.
Mayhap one of the biggest business blunders in history was fabricated by Blockbuster.
In September 2000, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings offered to sell his company to Blockbuster for $50 meg. The CEO of Blockbuster, John Antioco, quickly dismissed the offering.
Of course, we know how wrong that conclusion was.
By 2010, Blockbuster had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and now has but one store — a franchise — in Bend, Oregon. Meanwhile, Netflix has over 200 meg users worldwide and a net worth of $290 million.
The bottom line
While the Blockbuster mistake led to its demise, Sony remains a financially strong visitor. Just it could have an even improve bottom line.
As of August 2021, the Marvel Cinematic Universe series was the highest-grossing moving picture franchise with total worldwide box office revenue of 22.93 billion U.S. dollars.
That is a long way alee of the following two franchises on the list — the Star Wars and Harry Potter series have worldwide box function revenues of x.3 billion and 9.2 billion dollars, respectively.
Sony non agreeing to purchase all the Marvel characters and just focus on Spider-Man has potentially cost them $22 billion.
I guess people really do give a shit about the other Marvel characters.
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Source: https://medium.datadriveninvestor.com/sony-made-a-22-billion-dollar-mistake-twice-ac62a4d2fb98
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