According to Reuters [19 Nov], Sony is in discussions to buy Japanese publisher Kadokawa. The news sent Kadokawa shares limit up (+23%) to an all-time high. Sony has long been interested in different parts of Kadokawa, and in recent years has formed a capital alliance with Kadokawa to co-develop IP (in conjunction with CyberAgent), as well as taking a stake in FromSoftware. However, the idea that Sony would acquire the whole of Kadokawa is something of a surprise, given the bits-and-pieces natur...
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba set out the first plan of his administration, which is to spend ¥10tril through FY30 further revitalizing Japan’s one-time globally dominant chip industry. The move comes after a ¥2tril package was announced last year and is seen as party of a ¥50tril private-public investment in Japanese chipmaking over the next decade. Pelham Smithers discusses beneficiaries.
Sony produced an excellent set of results for FY24 Q2 but did not revise up the full-year guidance. Pelham Smithers reviews each division and notes that that with 1H OP at 56% of the full year guidance, it is on course to come in ahead of targets.
It has been a busy week for bean counters in the video games industry, with the release of global console sales data for September, US software and hardware markets for September, and weekly software sales for UK, Japan and Steam. These figures seem to paint a similar picture: hardware sales are bad, though not as bad as over the summer, while software sales are okay. Pelham Smithers elaborates.
News that the French eyewear / lens maker EssilorLuxoticca has taken a 5% stake in Nikon (7731 JT) is fascinating, and not just because it comes hard on the heels of the Couche-Tard / Seven & I (3382 JT) discussions. Like the Seven & I situation, it is unlikely that EL would want to own all of Nikon. So: should it gain control of the Japanese precision equipment maker, some very spicy divisions would be up for sale.
When the BoJ raised rates in March, it had been 17 years since it had last done so, though the world was very different then. While the July rate hike was unlikely to move the economic needle, the question now is what else might follow the subsequent financial market maelstrom. Pelham Smithers discusses the outlook for Japan’s macro environment, what new fiscal policies the new PM might introduce, how the BoJ might react and the all-important trend in corporate earnings. This then leads us to...
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