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Sony financial IPO may subsidize PS3 cost
Sony will sell about $2.9 billion worth of shares in a new IPO for its insurance unit, Japan's biggest IPO this year. 34.5 percent of Sony Financial Holding Inc. will go on sale in the Tokyo Stock Exchange on October 11th. It's expected that the money generated from the IPO will raise funds for the consumer electronics and games divisions."Sony could use the funds for various options to strengthen its electronics and game businesses,'' said Mitsuhiro Osawa, a Tokyo-based analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co. "A cut in the price of the PlayStation 3 is one option,'' said Osawa.Analysts are predicting that another PS3 price cut may happen in the coming months. Certainly, the gain of nearly $3 billion in funds will certainly help subsidizing any losses that Sony would incur from such a move.[Via GI.biz]
Sony raising money for PlayStation division with insurance unit IPO
Narrowly voting down a bake sale, Sony execs have elected to sell off shares of the company's insurance unit to raise funds for the struggling games division. The sale of roughly $2.9 billion of shares (34.5% of Sony Financial Holdings Inc.) will be Japan's largest IPO this year and some of the proceeds will be channeled to the PlayStation unit; and some will benefit the production of Bravia televisions.As PlayStation 3 continues to lag behind Wii in sales, a renewed price drop seems obvious, but would also mean greater short-term losses for the games division. Money from the insurance unit IPO could help balance that loss, but the IPO faces its own challenge as investors are still shaken from losses in the subprime mortgage market. But would they have said "no" to a pile of gooey cupcakes and fudge-packed brownies? We'll never know.
Virgin Mobile aims for $506 million in IPO
Lying in sharp contrast to Amp'd's less-than-stellar fortunes, Virgin Mobile USA -- a joint venture of Virgin and Sprint operated very differently from its European cousin -- is actually hoping to do even better than originally expected. The MVNO had said in May that it hoped to raise up to $100 million through an initial public offering of shares (stock symbol "VM" in case you're curious), but that figure has now skyrocketed up to a rather shocking figure of $508 million. Virgin Mobile hopes to use the cash to pay off a handful of debts it accrued in the process of getting its business off the ground, something Amp'd hasn't quite managed to do just yet.