Sony Bets Its Future On PlayStation II Console? 330
max_cool writes "Sony has announced that it is splitting its stock in preparation for a strong PS2 release. This could make many people very wealthy or destroy the company. Daily Radar has a full report on Sony's strategy and why they think it will succeed."
Bang! (Score:1)
Anyone else think that marketing slogan "it's alive" is kinda silly? As /if/. Does it impliment genetic algos? No. Does it find patterns in things? Nope. Uhhh... can it reproduce? Well, kindof... if you consider the save game cartridges to be "passing it's genes on"...
Okay, I'm done ranting now..
Here's hoping (Score:1)
----
Splitteroo (Score:2)
-Tim
Re:Splitteroo (Score:2)
signature smigmature
Re:It's just an accounting move (Score:1)
Risky? Hrm... (Score:4)
No alternative? (Score:3)
If the PS2 is a runaway hit, the company will be in its best shape ever. If not...well, Sony's hoping they won't have to deal with that alternative.
If not...then Sony better have one HELL of a backup strategy. The article is saying "Sony is hoping this stock split will be a success." HOPING? What kind of business practice is THAT? Sure, it's good business to take risks, but what if your risk turns into a Bad Move? Are you going to say "Oops" and pull the white sheet over the company's head? Not smart. Sony needs something to be able to recoup it's losses in the event of the PSX-2 being a flop.
Sony, if I may make a suggestion.....Sell off your AIBO dogs at Cost + 20%. That way, you still make a decent profit, and we get AIBO dogs cheap.
(P.S.: Yeah, this looks like a huge move on Sony's part, but there are MANY divisions to that company. If the PSX-2 fails, it will hurt them badly, but it won't kill them.)
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
Good timing (Score:3)
However, they might meet some resistance from the Dreamcast. If that happens and the resitance is enough to shake Sony up a bit, then they are in
dangerous waters with everything riding on a single product. This will be exiting to watch.
- JoJo
Re:Splitteroo (Score:2)
Cool. Good Luck. (Score:1)
Given the old playstation 1, (which is still selling quite nicely here in the UK despite its age and the advent of the dreamcast), is/was technically inferior to similar models.
This underlines again the old adage that it is the games that makes the console, not the console.
The best killer feature of this console is that it is riding off the success of its back-catalogue of games, by retaining backwards compatability.
Oh, and the DVD thing is kind of good.
I love my PSX, and I can't wait to get my hands on a PSX II. If only to get my bloody son of the PC....
Bullshit... (Score:1)
Sure, it may be risky to be seen as a penny stock, however, Sony Corporation is currently at about 270 USD, and a split at that level can hardly be seen as them betting their future.. I wouldn't even consider it taking a risk.
Actually, 270 USD is quite high, and they might benefit from a stock split, even without further price increases.
Somebody better research more before they make silly claims.
i'll be buying one. (Score:1)
--Ryan
Why this could be worse than better for Sony. (Score:3)
The Stock Market is Strong. After a market slump in the Far East, the time is right for a move like this. In the US and worldwide, tech stocks are generally moving upwards.
Well, they were until today. While you can't base a trend on one or two days, there is legitimate fear (at least in the US) that the Feds will raise intrest rates, and that is affecting the stock market, and we can see that right now, with the NASDAQ falling like crazy today.
Secondly, to know the future we must know history. No market leader in any game console generation has been able to take market lead in the following generation. Playstation 1 leads the current generation, can it lead the next as well? History is not on Sony's side.
Thirdly, price. The
Lastly, programming. Even if the thing sells like hotcakes, you need good games, and word on the street is that this thing is a bitch to program for. Final dev kits aren't even available to most developers, and those that have them site a steep learning curve for programming for multiple processors and the small amount of video memory present on the system. This could hinder game development by the smaller companies out there.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for PSX2 to succeed, as I think it's a phenominal piece of machinery, but for it to do so, Sony definitly has their work cut out for them.
This could be the one (Score:1)
Re:Good timing (Score:2)
1. It's backwards compatible with old playstation games (as far as i know, if i'm wrong, let me know)
2. Playstation has a wide variety of games available, games that interest me, not some fucking hedgehog or fat italian guy jumping around, but quality stuff, like tony hawk's pro skater.
3. I don't have a 3, this is here because 3 looks better two, and adds meaningless content to this post.
Bottom line, I'm pretty sure playstation 2 is going to sell like a mofo when it comes out, and this move is nowhere near as "gutsy" as people are making it out to be. Sony makes a whole hell of alot of stuff, and it survived quite well before playstation even came out.
Re:Good timing (Score:1)
1. It's backwards compatible with old playstation games (as far as i know, if i'm wrong, let me know)
2. Playstation has a wide variety of games available, games that interest me, not some fucking hedgehog or fat italian guy jumping around, but quality stuff, like tony hawk's pro skater.
3. I don't have a 3, this is here because 3 looks better two, and adds meaningless content to this post.
Bottom line, I'm pretty sure playstation 2 is going to sell like a mofo when it comes out, and this move is nowhere near as "gutsy" as people are making it out to be. Sony makes a whole hell of alot of stuff, and it survived quite well before playstation even came out.
open source it! (Score:1)
sorry for the double post (Score:1)
Does this sound like Sony? (Score:2)
Face it. Sony is a company with many feet to stand on, and have been on the leading edge of consumer electronics since I-can't-remember-when. Does anybody think they would risk going totally overboard over just one of several hundredproducts.
This makes me think that Sony also has something else, real big, up their sleeve that the general public is not aware of yet. What that could be? No idea whatsoever.
The PS2, being the dvd-player, game console, webtop box reinvented into one box will for sure have it's impact, but cannot possibly alone be responsible for this move
Just my $.02Re:Splitteroo (Score:3)
But I don't think the main reason is marketing. I think that when they lanch a product such as this they want to free up some stocks that can increase in value. Or at least, they're hoping they will. Betting it all on one card...
- JoJo
This isn't very risky (Score:1)
Disclaimer: I own zero shares of Sony.
Understanding the Stock Market... (Score:4)
I guess Roblimo must've bought into Sony hyper hook, line, and sinker.
supid (Score:1)
Just my 1.3 Canadian cents.
Sigh. (Score:4)
$270 per share is generally considered "high", so the stock is split. Theoretically a split has no effect on the company's value (2*135 == 1*270); in practice this tactic increases the volume of trading and usually creates the illusion of increased value.
No problem (Score:2)
A good Bet (Score:2)
Finally, Sony has another thing going for it -- nintendo's mistakes. For all of my life i have been a nintendo loyal (owning every system, save the virtual-boy that they have made). As you might expect i purchased the N64 when it first came out and was sadly dissapointed: one controller, no games, no memory packs; this wasn't the Nintendo i grew up with.
Don't get me wrong, the 64 has great games...just not enough of them. The 64 has been, for me, enough of a dissapointment to cause me to consider switching to the PSX 2 when it comes out (having not seen a single *good* rpg on the 64 -- Zelda was good, but still -- it simply isn't enough)!
I can say, finances affording, i plan to buy sony stock.
god bless the PSX2 (Score:1)
Re:Why this could be worse than better for Sony. (Score:1)
signature smigmature
Re:Splitteroo (Score:2)
so that people can afford to buy more shares. This happens approximately EVERY DAY in the stock market. Yahoo! has split about fifty times.
Splitting a stock just drives up the price of a stock again by making it more attractive to low budget investors. It's not risky at all, and it certainly can't destroy a company. Notice how the article didn't explain how a split could possibly be risky! It basically raved about Sony. Sony is just making it easier to buy shares, and the hype is giving the split a lot of attention.
I guess Roblimo must've bought into Sony hyper hook, line, and sinker.
Sony is HUGE (Score:1)
Re:supid (Score:1)
Look at the market (Score:2)
Many consoles seem to have come and gone from the old Atari's to the Dreamcast, but Sony seem to have managed to convince enough people that Games Console = Playstation. You only have to take a look at the shops just before Christmas where the original Playstation was outselling even the Dreamcast in the UK!! Sony have got the best market position in this area at the moment, mostly because the Playstation Brand is recognized, even (and particularly) by non-gamers.
With the market profile the Playstations has at the moment, I believe many people will subconciously wander in to the "Buy Sony" ethos, in much the same way your average boss used to think "Buy IBM" or your end user "Buy the latest version of Windows". Sure, PS2 is going to appeal to the serious hardcore gamer, but it's going to be instantly recognizable to the occasional user, and the buy,play,forget market who are undoubtedly going to represent the vast majority of sales.
As for me, should be perfect timing - I'll have just about completed all 4 Tombraiders on my trusted old Playstation just in time to upgrade it
I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member
PS2 (Score:1)
Will it see the desired success? (Score:2)
I envision a slow start at best, although I intend to pick up mine first chance I get.
-hal-
Re:Splitteroo (Score:1)
Splitting increases the liquidity of your stock. In the US, stocks trade in 1/16ths of a dollar ("Teenies") and thus if a stock moves at all it has to move by at least 1/16th of a dollar. This is not a trivial issue when the numbers get large.
-cwk.
Haven't bought sony stock yet. . . (Score:1)
Good Move (Score:1)
Agree: It's bullshit (Score:4)
Stocks are split when they get too expensive, so that smaller players can buy in more easily
At $270 it costs $27,000 to buy a hundred shares - the "round lot" quantum on the markets, below which you are typically penalized with higher transaction fees. Splitting, say, 3-for-1 brings the stock price down to 90 and the ante down to $9,000. Many more players can buy in. Typically they do, and bid the price up a bit, which is why stocks typically climb just after a split. (And larger players take advantage of that by buying on news that the stock is going to split - which also bids the stock up a little before the split.)
$270 is way high, so a split is overdue. The split will almost certainly result in the stock going up. If the marketing droids can convince some fools that there is some risk to this and doing it is "daring", said fools will interpret the rise as a success for Sony.
As for any real risk from the move, the only one I can see is a psychological hit if the stock ends up trading at a very low number. But if they don't split it beyond 3-for-1 they'd have to lose half their value after the split to drop below even 45. If the stock value drops by 50% they have some other problem - big time.
they're gonna be rich (Score:2)
The PlayStation 2 is theoretically more powerful than the SGI workstations that created the original Toy Story! The custom chip in the console costs about $260 alone, and the console is expected to retail at $300 or so. They would likely have to sell it for $400 or even $500 to break even! So, it seems a bit weird that they would risk everything when they know that they were going to lose money. Or am I stupid and wrong?
David
When you choke a smurf what color does it turn?
Re: (Score:2)
The real winner (Score:1)
Take the C64 for example.. It enjoyed long-lived success because it had some neat commercial software, and the hackers made it into a great machine. Almost everybody and their cat had one. There are still some in service today.
I think this is Microsoft's plan for their "X-Box", except you'd be tied down with Microsoft compilers and, of course, Windows.
If someone like Sony, Sega, or Nintendo released a programmable console, it'd be awesome, crush the competition, and live forever.
Dreamcast tidbits [min.net]
Fud, all Fud... (Score:1)
Since when does preforming a stock split when the stock is trading for 200$ plus set a company up for ruin? All they have done is doubled the number of stocks out there.
I day trade. It make no differenct to me if I have 200 shares of a 100$ company or 100 shares of a 200$ company. I have invested 20000$ into each of them and I will make the same amount of money when the stock doubles.
This is all FUD.
Quack
Re:Why this could be worse than better for Sony. (Score:2)
As always, don't be a nimrod and do that technical analysis or buy with momentum, analyze your prospective stock picks and think of the long term. The most embarrasing thing I can think of is when someone says "What do you think of XYZABC stock?" and I ask "What do they do?"... "I don't know... someone told me about them..." Ick. The stock market is not a game. :)
As for Sony, I don't know that anyone who's tried to make their game console a kitchen sink device (Internet, games, computer, CD-player, etc.) has ever suceeded. People will probably always think of the consoles as a game playing device and not much more. When was the last time you played a CD (music) on your Sony PlayStation? I doubt anyone does it that often-- I didn't even know that the Playstation could do it until I RTFM. :)
I could be wrong. Some friends at work are waiting for PSX2 so they can save money on buying a DVD player. :) I'm happy enough with my dedicated DVD player. I feel that they're going to be a big money loser if they don't hit the magical sub-$300 mark for an A/V component. They might do well to consider embedding a Tivo in there. :)
I actually only own like 2 PSX games (I'm a newcomer to the thing, I only got my PSX like a month ago. There has to be a tremendous category killer or new category to inspire me to consider buying any more games for it.
I own more Sony crap than anything else electronic I think. Its usually very good stuff.
_______
computers://use.urls. People use Networds.
They appear due for a split anyway... (Score:1)
Re:Splitteroo (Score:1)
I'll go ahead and say that the inner workings of the stock market are a complete mystery to me. So some over paid analyst on wall street THINKS the company might or might not do well in the coming quarter--this is supposed to be a measure of actual worth? my dad thinks i might do well in my classes this semester--should i get a 4.0?
Sony bets the farm? Bullfeathers. (Score:1)
I would believe this horsecrap about Sony having so much at risk with PSX2 if we were talking about any other company.
Sony has long, well-established, profitable product lines in many different markets.
Sony's brand is among the best in the world in nearly every market it is in.
Sony is stable, with a long history of success, vision, and innovation.
If PSX2 fails, it will hurt. But there will be profits from Walkmen, camcorders, PCs, industrial products, televisions, and stereos to fill the gap.
Worst case, Sony misses an opportunity to be the first one through the door in home electronics convergence. Big f$%^@# deal. They'll have more than enough money to do it right thee second time.
If I could put money on Sony's bet, I would. Sounds pretty safe to me. Now, as to whether I want a game console as the center of my home nervous system...
-cwk.
PSx2 (Score:1)
Article Bias and Support of the Platform (Score:1)
Sony destroyed by Playstation failure? (Score:1)
and technologies (including licensing on the
CD format, lots of other electronic gadgets,
etc.) plus they have a very large and
successful record label and a successful
theater chain, do you honestly think that
something with the comparitively low sales
volume is going to destroy them?
Sony destroyed by Playstation failure? (Score:1)
Re:Bang! (Score:1)
How does this change anything? (Score:1)
If I have 100 shares of Sony @$100 each, and it splits 2-for-1, I then have 200 shares@$50 each.
Both before and after I have the exact same equity in the company, and the only difference is how investors view a $50 stock as opposed to a $100 stock.
I can see that given this investor mindset a $50 stock is more likely to be dramatically affected by the success/failure of PSII.
But in either case, the publicly owned shares of Sony are already owned by someone other than Sony, so how does it help/hurt the company? Anyone care to explain?
A little off there... (Score:2)
For instance, let's say a company's stock costs $500 USD. So, I'd have to pay $500 to get one share of the company.
Now scratch that and say that the company split the stock at $500 with a 2 for 1 split. The stock halves, and everyone gets twice their shares. Now let's say I buy the stock - two shares at $250 a share. It was easier for me to buy the latter way rather than the former way because I had more options as to how much I want to invest in this company.
The point is that you can't buy 1/2 of a share of a company. A split makes it easier for people to invest in a company.
Now, on to my second point. Sony announced that it would center its business around the Playstation long ago - July, 1999. The idea is that with the huge boom that Playstation experienced, Sony realized that there is a market in "set-top boxes." However, the set-top boxes have to do more than surf the web - they have to be able to entertain and be usable by all types of people.
Hence, Sony actually restructured the company to be centered around the idea that the future's money will be made through connectivity. Sony appliances will be able to talk to each other, and be easier to use. Imagine just hitting the "web" button on a Playstation console and your TV automatically switches to the proper mode, video resolution, etc.
That's what Sony is talking about and they've already made numerous claims as to making Playstation the console that everyone will use.
Re:Why this could be worse than better for Sony. (Score:1)
I was thinking about getting some Sony stock, but now I guess I'll sink that into Linuxcare. ;)
Well (Score:1)
Re:Bang! (Score:1)
Re:First Haiku (Score:1)
Do Rob and Hemos pay you?
Fucking
bullshit article (Score:1)
So what if sonys stock is split(maybe in half). It just means that the prices for a piece of sony are more affordable. No this does not free any stock for people to buy it just doubles the amount of sony's stock while maintaining the same total value. What's the difference between selling 10000 shares for half the price or 5000 for normal. Absolutely nothing.
More likely the split will be a boost for sonys share-value. People generally have a tendency of being reluctant to buy stuff at high prices. After the split sony seems cheaper and traders will have an easier time offering higher prices for it(not that they don't base their decisions on the big picture anyway).
And this article actually goes to mention yahoo and amazon as examples of when to split stock. Those are the companies with the most "air" in their stock prices anyway. Most of the value for yahoo or amazon is based on future expectations and nothing concrete such as sonys production facilities etc. Stock price should, after all, mostly be based on the actual value of company.
The site hosting the article will be in my proxys access control list to save bandwith from bullshit.
Anyone wondering about this.... (Score:1)
wtf? Isnt Sony a powerhouse in other consumer electronics areas?
I would think so.
Re:Understanding the Stock Market... (Score:1)
Destroy the company (Score:1)
Besides, Playstation2 isn't a bad thing to take a risk on. I've been slobering over the specs for some time now. Going to pick one up for myself once its released.
Re:Make or break? (Score:1)
"full report" --ha! (Score:1)
I'm not sure we should be reading financial reporting from a gaming site. What is next? "Alan Greenspans get fragged, Clan Fed fights back with an interest rate boost!"
tj
Re:Good timing (Score:1)
OB Disclaimer: I am not a market analyst.
Just my $.02.....
Re:Splitteroo (Score:2)
Normally on average a companies stock falls %2 in the first 3 months after the split. Sony is playing its cards right by releasing its new groundbreaking product when they split their stock so they can avoid the %2 split fizzle syndrome.
Shares... Not stocks (Score:1)
"a stock split puts twice as many shares on the market. Each share will be worth half as much, but the shareholders will own twice as many shares in the company."
Sorry - but there is a difference.
Re:Why this could be worse than better for Sony. (Score:2)
Although I must agree that I don't listen to audio cd's on my PSX right now. And when I found out I could I didn't do it for very long; however, when I was on vacation my roommate used my PSX as a cd player almost everyday, so much so that my PSX had some problems loading games for a while. (it's all fine now, kind of weird though).
I think the point that you're missing is the relationship between playing movies vs. playing video games is alot closer than you might imagine. A lot of games now a days are really just walk through movies, and your PSX is required to be attached to your TV anyway, so you're not going to watch a movie and play on your PSX at the same time anyways.
On the other hand, the CD player just isn't related closely enough. Sure, I might not want to watch TV and listen to music at the same time. But my CD player isn't connected to my TV to start with - in fact it's in a completely different room...
As far as kitchen sinking, I think Sony is making some huge mistakes, the PS2 will ship sans modem - that means No internet, and will continue to ship without defaulting to 4 control pad inputs. Which is a huge mistake that the N64 capitalized on. Both of these moves show that Sony is marketing this machine to the single player market (Anyone want to watch me play this movie by myself?), and not moving into the multi-player market that Dreamcast is launching itself into.
The biggest regret I have for buying a PSX over N64 is that there are many more games for the N64 that support 4 players. Whereas the PSX is hurting in that category, because game manufacturers know that PSX owners don't buy the 4 player adapter because they think of it as an "Add-on" as opposed to something they're "Missing". If you didn't get that try this analogy: The 4 player adapter is to the PSX as the Light Gun is to the N64. Not a lot of Games that let you use a Light gun on the N64... Not a lot of 4 player games on the PSX.
Here's hoping that the PS2 will have a modem and 4 controller inputs standard.
Joseph Elwell.
This sounds quite cool (Score:1)
Re:It's just an accounting move (Score:2)
You buy 1 share of RHAT at $100 a share
if it goes up 1 point it goes up %1
you make $1
now lets say that RHAT splits, now you have 2 shares at $50
if it goes up 1 point it goes up %2
You make $2
oh come *on* (Score:1)
The other problem with them "betting the company" is the console market is just not *that big*. I don't think they could do that if they wanted to. So if somehow, this console thing screws up, all their other divisions (cameras, laptops, home audio equipment, dvd players, and dozens of other things) are not going to be able to support the company?
This is simply the company trying to make money.
I am looking forward to the psx2 however.:)
Hyperbole (Score:1)
Re:Splitteroo (Score:1)
Re:Understanding the Stock Market... (Score:1)
Re:Splitteroo (Score:2)
Re:How much is the console? (Score:2)
I wouldn't buy Sony stock, but good luck to them (Score:2)
I did find out that Playstation by itself accounted for about 10% of Sony's income. That's pretty damn impressive. And Sony is betting the farm on PS2 to succeed. The next hurdle is seeing what happens in March 2000, when it's released in Japan.
Is Sony stock worth the money? Probably not. I can find other companies to invest money into with better, more solid future returns. Just my opinion. Please don't pelt me with stones if Sony stock goes crazy this next year.
-S. Louie
Re:Bang! (Score:2)
CPU Core: MIPS III, MIPS IV subset + 128b SIMD
two 64-bit integer units and an FPU.
16K of scratch RAM, this is cool because its basicaly cache that you get to hand optimize.
The real power shows up in the Vector units Unit 0 has 4 FMAC's (Floating point multiply accumulate, a += b * c), and one Divider. The second Vector unit has 5 FMACS and 2 Dividers.
And of course everyone loves the 3.2 GBytes/second main memory bandwidth, and the 48 GBytes/second video memory bandwidth (remember those 2,560 bits of video memory data bus).
There are plenty more fun facts to be had, but I have gone way past your question...
Commodore 64/128 and Sony PSX/PS2 (Score:2)
For the launch of the PS2 most developers are not going to release PS2 versions of their new games, focusing on the PSX standard so as to capture both markets. This reminds me almost of the Commodore [commodore.org] C=64 and C=128D (Remember these things before the Amigas). Consumers thought why buy the 128 when everything is written for the 64?
Will the new PS suffer the same fate?
Splits have nothing to do with Success (Score:2)
There are 500 shares of sony stock @ $10.
If the stock splits then there are 1000 shares @ $5.
Either way, there is $5000 worth of sony stock in the market. If the first goes up by $2 to $12, then the second would go up to $6 - same percentage change - that's all the market cares about.
Obviously, this guy has never heard of market capitalization... (the total value of all the stock (not all stocks, just all the stock of a company) in the market at market price)
On a less mathematical level, but more relevant to reality:
Announcing a stock split usually indicates that a company expects large growth in the future - often people buy into stocks that split for this reason. (Please note that I do not own any sony stock, nor do I intend to purchase any in the near future) But announcing a split and not going anywhere is equally possible, if only to allow people to buy smaller amounts of your stock - if minimum purchase is 100 shares and the stock is at $300, a split might be wise to help out small investors.
Cyano
Horribly uniformed (Score:2)
This financial maneuver is a risky move that's generally taken by companies with massive upward momentum such as Yahoo.com, Amazon.com and, more recently, Qualcomm. A stock split is a responsible move which almost every successful publicially traded company makes. It is practically mandatory for a company with rising stock prices. The only exception would be Berkshires Hathaway, which has never split and now costs over $50,000 for a single share of stock. As Sony jumps into this stock split, its financial momentum is not as strong as the others, While I haven't looked over any filings for Sony, Yahoo, Amazon or Qualcomm, I can guarantee you that Sony has better "financial momentum" than all of those companies put together. They might have bright future prospects and stock price momentum, but Sony is a proven, succesfull, profitable, diversified company unlike the others. Perhaps the most important reason that Sony has chosen to split its stock is that it has little alternative. Well sure, it has to split, but that has nothing to do with a product launch. The stock is simply too expensive. The rest of the article talks about why the PlayStation 2 will be successful, but that's not really relevant to the issue of a stock split. I'm not familiar with Daily Radar, but they should stick to stuff they understand or learn a little about equity markets before posting garbage like this.
PS2, Worst Thing To Happen To Usenet Since WebTV? (Score:2)
It seems that every time we get accustomed to a new lowest common denominator on the Internet, we manage to have a "improved" one.
I think that the online PS2 community will be the largest community of wannabe hackers, warez fiends and crossposters ever. The PS2 is designed to appeal to an age group which is rapidly losing its ability to communicate intelligently or have a attention span longer than 30 seconds.
PSII looked good at E3 99 - is it an linux os? (Score:2)
The spec's looked great at the game developers con [gdconf.com] 1999. The demo platform was looking good at E3 99. (they were using laptops with RH to monitor and reset the development platforms on the show floor.)
(FYI - word was that they didn't have enough physicists and programmers to fully take advantage of the specs sony published...I wonder how close the end PS II will be to the first published specs)
I wonder if they are still charging royalties per each GAME made. (normally console makers sell the cousoles near cost (maybe even a loss?) and make it up on the royalties. (est $8-9 USD per CD, or $23-25 USD per N64 Cartridge.) hmmm - how would they handle royalties on a Java VM CD? (assuming you could then download play tons of non-graphic intensive java games without paying additional royalties.)
Re:Splitteroo (Score:2)
I'm assuming that mode is not on in the original posting, so...
Close - that $10 share was split into two $5 shares which in turn were split resulting in four $2.50 shares, etc. Of course, that assumes that the stock price hasn't changed between splits.
Given price increases between splits, you wind up with a wonderful increase in quantity AND total amount. Following a split, many shares (in today's tech-happy-rollercoaster market) quickly climb to close to their original value.
So yeah, one original Yahoo share @ $10 has now gone into warp speed and represents about 50 shares, each worth $443 - about $22,000 - hmmm - sure beats inflation...
As to buying our Bill G, well, we have a little while to go yet
Console Wars! (Score:2)
Let's say, strategy-game style, that there are four resources you want a game system to have:
Dreamcast
PlayStation2
Result: Good start for Sony. Dreamcast holds firm.
Now let's skip forward a year to Christmas 2001 and include Nintendo's next system (ignoring any Microsoft entry):
Dreamcast
PlayStation2
Dolphin
Result: Wild-and-crazy three-way brawl. The Dolphin has a debut that takes the luster off of the PS2. The PS2 establishes itself. Dreamcast could end up either on top or on the bottom based on how well Sega puts together its software portfolio in this time.
Anyone else out there want to venture their guess?
Trusting Slashdot Readers (Score:4)
Enjoy the irony! And please note that many Slashdot readers have debunked that hype for those who *don't* know that a stock split is a ho-hum financial maneuver for companies whose share prices have put round lots (100 shares) out of reach of the very small-time investors who are most susceptible to hype.
More and more, before posting a story like the one above, instead of adding my own words to it I find myself thinking, "Fifty others will say exactly what I would anyway, so why not let them?"
Slashdot has some amazingly bright readers. The debunking always gets done, one way or another, whether by me or by you.
- Robin
PS - remember the Jesux "Christian Linux" hoax that took in ZDNet and Wired a while back, but got exposed here? I had a pleasant IRC conversation with Pudge, the perpetrator, earlier today. Real nice guy.
(I'm often on #slashdot at irc.slashnet.org if you want to continue this discussion, BTW.)
Not necessarily.... (Score:2)
Sony is 50x the size of Nintendo, in Market Value (Score:2)
If your statement that Sony gets a $7 license fee per PlayStation cartridge is true, that's a huge royalty when measured against the retail price of each cartridge. It's even more astounding when measured against the wholesale price of the units, which is the only money that the cartridge developer ever sees.
One question I have about the assertion that Nintendo was a $5 billion company before Pokemon: $5 billion in what, sales or market capitalization? Perhaps they had $5 billion in annual sales. But, according to Marketwatch, Nint endo's market capitalization [marketwatch.com] (another name for the total market value of the company) is only $2.9 billion.
I'd like to own a company that's worth that much, but it's tiny compared to Sony's market cap [marketwatch.com] of over $110 billion.
--
Dave Aiello
50% of their profit (Score:2)
PS2 is close to 'bet the company'
Daily Radar: a Bad Substitute for Wall St Journal (Score:3)
Let me begin by pointing you to the Fundam entals page for Sony on CBS Marketwatch [marketwatch.com]. Sony is currently valued by the market at around $110 billion -- this is the market capitalization. There are, according to this page, 411 million shares outstanding. Over the last 200 trading days, an average of 205,100 shares have been traded each day, or 4/100ths of 1 percent of the shares.
I compared this stock to General Electric [marketwatch.com], which is another extremely large, established company. In spite of the fact that General Electric is worth about 4 times as much as Sony (comparing market caps), 3 times as many shares in GE as a percentage of its total number of shares outstanding trade each day.
This means that GE is much more liquid (easy to trade) than Sony. That is potentially a good reason to split Sony stock, because the easier it is to buy or sell a stock, the less wildly the price tends to swing. Liquidity is considered a good thing by institutional investors and people who trade stocks for a living. By contrast, lack of liquidity is the reason that Internet companies move up and down fairly violently on a daily basis.
The reason that some stock market newcomers think stock splits are indicators that the company is moving boldly is that recently, many companies that have announced splits have seen their stock prices soar immediately afterward. This initially happened with Internet-related companies like Amazo n.com [marketwatch.com], but it has gotten really out of hand lately, with companies like Qualc omm [marketwatch.com].
Stock splits are really market neutral events. If a stock is at 100 the day before the split, and it splits 2-for-1, it's value at the open should be 50. I say "should be" because a stock often does not open at exactly the same price as it closes, so if there is a 2-for-1 split, the stock should open at around half the price of the close the previous day.
This brings us to another fallacy in the article. It says that a stock split is a "financial maneuver that is a risky move". The stock that traded for 100 per share yesterday was not issued by the company yesterday -- it was issued at some time in the past. The trade at 100 that took place yesterday was between two participants in the stock market who (probably) had no relationship to the company.
So, when the stock opens at 50 on the next day, after splitting two for one, not only did the people who traded the stock not lose anything (since they automatically have 2x the number of shares), but the company did not lose anything since they did not own the stock that was traded yesterday. Of course, any stock that the company is holding on its balance sheet (generally called treasury shares) did not increase or decrease in value, since the number of shares doubled while the price was cut in half.
I could go on with this analysis all night, but let me jump to the end of the Daily Radar article. The author makes the statement:
All I can say about this is that he must mean that the company is building its entire video game console product line around PlayStation2. Sony does a lot more than produce game consoles. In addition to its video game console business, it owns 11 different recording labels [sonymusic.com], a TV and movie production business [sony.com] which produces such insignificant products as the TV series Dawson's Creek, and Sony Electronics [sony.com] which makes everything from chips to Jumbotrons.
That's why the company is worth over $110 billion, and that's just a few reasons why this article is so humorous to people who enjoy analyzing businesses and buying small pieces of them.
--
Dave Aiello
I'm sorry, but... (Score:2)
So Slashdot deliberately creates fake controversy? (Score:3)
It seems to me that Slashdot quite frequently posts articles with a controversy-inducing spin. The Gnome Napster article was one such case where I was involved. The hydrino one was another. "Crank or earth-shattering science?" How about just another scam artist who is good at exploiting people's desire to believe.
I've noticed that wrong and stupid posts often get a lot more response than well-written, balanced ones. In the former case, people have a great urge to write in and correct the original post. Some of these corrections are sensible, but by Sturgeon's Law, most are themselves pretty bogus. Presto! Instant controversy. After a well written article, people tend to be content.
So I think there is a danger that interesting and important stories are getting lost in the noise. I like the volume and rough-and-tumble nature of slashdot, but I for one would prefer a forum in which accuracy and footwork counted for something.
ObOnTopic: anyone know the status of the Linux port to the PlayStation II?
Re:Risky? Hrm... (Score:2)
Re:they're gonna be rich (Score:2)
True enough, but utterly irrelevant, since Toy Story was not rendered in realtime. We'll see seom fantastic graphics on the PS2, but I'm guessing they won't be up to the standards of Toy Story (and certainly not at the resulution of 35mm film).
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online gaming (Score:2)
(2) Consoles will attract some more "fun" games. I'm personally a keen console gamer, and I'd far rather play something like Chu Chu Rocket online than an over-serious Quake clone. The chance to take part in a worldwide Bomberman league -- now that would be terrific.
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Re:PSII looked good at E3 99 - is it an linux os? (Score:2)
That said, I'm sure Linux *could* be ported. The Dreamcast boots an OS off the game disk, so different games will run under different OSs, and we may see all sorts of new OSs appear to enable quicker/better/easier-ported games. The PS2 may turn out the same.
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Re:No problem (Score:2)
The PS2 is going to be expensive. I'll get one (because I have one of every mainstream console since the NES) and I imagine a number of hardcore gamers and early adopters will too. However, initially the DC will have more games, will be cheaper, will have online gaming (by the time PS2 comes out).
I wonder what form the PS2 broadband network will take. DC users are getting full access to the Web -- the kiddie filters can be taken off, and you can get every porn site, every weird-arse opinion on whatever web site you like. I guess Sony will dictate the content on their own network -- how dull!
It's going to be a close fight, and it'll be a lot of fun to watch (and take part in)
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Re:Splitteroo (Score:2)
Or you could just buy all the ramen-producing factories and attempt to control the world by inserting mind-control chemicals into the seasoning packets...
O_o
Re:Trusting Slashdot Readers (Score:2)
Which is when reverse splitting is used.
Re:Look at the market (Score:2)
Those are very different markets. It's Coca-cola vs £100-a-bottle-champagne.
The PS2 will cost more than the Dreamcast, and will not be an impulse buy for anyone but the very rich, for a good few years -- until like the PLaystation before it, it becomes ubiquitous, and the production costs fall.
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Re:Splitteroo (Score:2)
Too late - Bill already did it - that's why Micro$oft's software has been such an outrageous success. Unfortunately for Micro$oft, now that so many people are becoming rich (thanks, in part, to the wild tech stock market) they're able to afford better food and are no longer eating as much Ramen.
Thus, as their Ramen consumption decreases, the Micro$oft mind control effect decreases and they start to notice other software. Obvious, when you think about it and look at the news headlines of the past couple of years....
Of course, now that you & I have dragged all this out into the open, we can both expect visits by the "Boys From Bill"