Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc.
Type Subsidiary of Sony[1]
Industry Entertainment
Founded 1987 as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.,[2] renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. on August 7, 1991
Headquarters 10202 West Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, United States
Key people Michael Lynton
(Chairman and CEO)
Amy Pascal
(Co-Chairman)
Jeff Blake
(Vice Chairman)
Products Motion pictures
Television Production
Television Syndication
Online games
Mobile Entertainment
Video on demand
Digital distribution
Revenue US$ 7.3 billion (FY2010)[3]
Operating income US$ 300 million (FY2010)[3]
Owner(s) Sony Corporation
Parent Sony
Website http://www.sonypictures.com

Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. (SPE) is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony. Its group sales in 2010 has been reported to be of $7.2 billion.[3][4]

Sony Pictures Entertainment is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

Contents

History

On September 28, 1989, Sony Corporation obtained an option to purchase all of The Coca-Cola Company's stake (49%) in Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. (CPE; Columbia Pictures, Tri-Star Pictures, etc.) for $27 per share. The next day, Sony also announced that it reached an agreement with Guber-Peters Entertainment Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: GPEC; formerly Barris Industries, Inc.) to acquire the company for $200 million when Sony hired Peter Guber and Jon Peters to head CPE. It was all led by Norio Ohga, who was the president and CEO of Sony during that time. On October 31, 1989, Sony completed a friendly takeover bid for the rest of shares (51%) of CPE, which was a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: KPE), and acquired 99.3% of the common stocks of the company. On November 8, 1989, Sony completed the acquisition by a "short-form" merger of its wholly owned subsidiary Sony Columbia Acquisition Corporation into CPE under Delaware law. Sony also completed a tender offer for shares of common stock of the GPEC on November 6, 1989 and acquired the company on November 9, 1989. The acquisition cost Sony $4.9 billion ($3.55 billion for shares and $1.4 billion of long-term debt) and was backed (financed) by 5 major Japanese banks Mitsui, Tokyo, Fuji, Mitsubishi and Industrial Bank of Japan.[5][6][7] The company was renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment on August 7, 1991.[8]

Sony has since created numerous other film production and distribution units, such as creating Sony Pictures Classics for art-house fare, by forming Columbia TriStar Pictures (also known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group) by merging Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures in 1998, revitalizing Columbia's former television division Screen Gems, and expanded its growth on April 8, 2005, when a consortium led by Sony and its equity partners acquired the legendary Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in a deal worth nearly US$5 billion.[9]

On June 4, 2008, SPE's wholly owned group 2JS Productions B.V. acquired Dutch production company 2waytraffic N.V., famous for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and You Are What You Eat for £114.3 million ($223.2 million in US dollars).

On June 3, 2011, SonyPictures.com was hacked, resulting in over a million passwords and e-mail addresses being stolen.[10][11]

Sony Pictures franchises

This is a list of franchises by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Corporate structure

Headquartered in Culver City, California, USA, SPE comprises various studios and entertainment brands, including Columbia Pictures and GSN.

Senior management team

List of holdings

Motion Pictures and Home Entertainment

Television Production and Distribution

Other Sony Pictures operations

Notes and references

  1. ^ Outline of Principal Operations, Sony Corporation of America
  2. ^ Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.: Private Company Information BusinessWeek
  3. ^ a b c "Consolidated Financial Results for the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2009". Tokyo, Japan: Sony. 14 May 2009. p. 5. http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/08q4_sony.pdf. Retrieved 15 November 2009. 
  4. ^ a b c d Sony Pictures – Corporate Factsheet, sonypictures.com
  5. ^ a b Rudolph B (1994) So many dreams so many losses. Time vol. 144, no. 22 (November 28, 1994)
  6. ^ a b Griffin N, Masters K (1996) Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood. (Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-83266-6)
  7. ^ Nathan, J. (1999) Sony: The Private Life. (Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-89327-5, ISBN 0-618-12694-5)
  8. ^ She Holds Torch for Sony Pictures Entertainment, latimes.com
  9. ^ Sony will purchase MGM in a deal worth about $5 billion, CNN, September 14, 2004.
  10. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13636704
  11. ^ http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20068414-260/hackers-steal-more-customer-info-from-sony-servers/?tag=topStories1
  12. ^ "Columbia Pictures Television Group acquires Four D Productions Inc.". PR Newswire. August 28, 1986. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-4349754.html. Retrieved 2011-05-01. 
  13. ^ The Anime Biz – By Ian Rowley, with Hiroko Tashiro, Chester Dawson, and Moon Ihlwan, BusinessWeek, June 27, 2005.
  14. ^ Animax Asia – Corporate ProfileAnimax-Asia official website.
  15. ^ Affiliated Companies (Outside Japan) Sony Corporation
  16. ^ Sony Pictures Online SPEJ – Company Profile, Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan), Inc. official website.
  17. ^ History of Columbia Pictures Part 3, Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan (in Japanese)
  18. ^ "Sony Pictures' Loot: A group of developers making Home wares". Destructoid. http://www.destructoid.com/sony-pictures-loot-a-group-of-developers-making-home-wares-131448.phtml. 

External links