Sony is prepared to say "no thanks" to activist hedge fund manager Dan Loeb's suggestion that it spinoff its entertainment unit, Nikkei reports.
Loeb, who owns 6.4% of Sony's outstanding shares, said in an investor letter that Sony's summer blockbusters were “2013′s versions of Waterworld and Ishtar,” according to Deadline, and that its television offerings missed the market as well.
From the letter:
“We were surprised that after Entertainment’s highly touted big budget summer releases — After Earth and White House Down — bombed spectacularly at the box office, CEO [Kazuo] Hirai, speaking at the Allen & Co. Sun Valley conferences a few weeks ago, brushed off these failures saying: ‘I don’t worry about the Entertainment business, it’s doing just fine’,” Loeb says.
If you know Loeb, you know he doesn't lie down. Here we go.