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Marvel reports lower profit as high-margin licensing ebbs, by Michael White - 5th May 2009
(Credit: Independent .ie)

Marvel Entertainment, maker of the "Iron Man" movie, reported first-quarter profit fell 1.8 percent as the company took in less from licensing fees on characters including Spider-Man.

Net income slipped to $44.6 million (€33.3 million), or 57 cents a share, from $45.4 million, or 58 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement distributed by Business Wire. Sales rose 75 percent to $197 million, beating the $140.6 million average of 14 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The company earned less from high-margin character licensing, while film production lifted total sales. Marvel benefited a year ago from products related to the “Spider- Man 3” movie and video game. The film had $891 million (€665 million) in worldwide ticket sales, according to researcher Box Office Mojo LLC.

“When there’s a ‘Spider-Man’ movie they have a really good next three quarters,” Michael Pachter, a Los Angeles- based analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, said before results were released. He recommends investors purchase the shares and doesn’t own them.

Licensing fees accounted for 41 percent of sales, down from 76 percent a year ago. Last year’s results were also bolstered by $19.3 million Marvel received for the termination of video-game licenses.

Marvel rose 88 cents to $31.10 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It has risen 1.1 percent this year.

In March, Marvel postponed the openings of “Thor” and “The Avengers” films to 2011 and 2012, respectively, after Sony said it would release the next “Spider- Man” sequel in 2011. Sony licenses the “Spider-Man” character from Marvel. (Bloomberg)

Profile

Sony Corporation is a multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, and one of the world's largest media conglomerates with revenue exceeding US$88.7 billion (as of 2008). Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, video game consoles, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its name is derived from Sonus, the Greek goddess of sound.

Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its five operating segments—electronics, games, entertainment (motion pictures and music), financial services and other. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Ericsson, and Sony Financial Holdings. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. The company's slogan is Sony. Like no other.

Sony BMG Music Entertainment is a global recorded music company with a roster of current artists that includes a broad array of both local artists and international superstars, as well as a vast catalog that comprises some of the most important recordings in history. Sony BMG Music Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America.

Mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures

* 1988 — Acquired CBS Records Group from CBS. It was renamed "Sony Music Entertainment".
* 1989 — Acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment from the Coca-Cola Company for US$3.4 billion. It was subsequently renamed "Sony Pictures Entertainment" in 1991.
* 1993 — Acquired Psygnosis Limited a computer games company based in Liverpool, UK. Psygnosis director Ian Hetherington was made Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
* 1995 — Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, a 50:50 joint venture of Sony Corporation of America and Michael Jackson.
* 1997 — ST Liquid Crystal Display Corporation (STLCD), a 50:50 joint venture of Sony Corporation and Toyota Industries Corporation.
* 2001 — Sony Ericsson, a 50:50 joint venture of Sony Corporation and Ericsson AB, was established in October.
* 2002 — Aiwa Corporation in October.
* 2004 — S-LCD Corporation, a joint venture of Sony Corporation and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (Samsung Electronics: 50% plus 1 share, Sony: 50% minus 1 share) was established in April.
* 2004 — On 20 July 2004, the EU approved a 50-50 merger between Sony Music Entertainment and BMG. The new company was named Sony BMG Music Entertainment and, as of 2005, holds a 21.5% share in the global music market, behind worldwide leader Universal Music Group, which has a 25.5% share.
* 2005 — On 8 April 2005, The MGM Company (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and United Artists) was acquired by a Sony-led consortium (Providence Equity Partners 29%, Texas Pacific Group 21%, Sony 20%, Comcast 20%, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners 7% and Quadrangle Group 3%) finalised the deal to purchase the film studio for about $4.8 billion, including $2bn in debts from Armenian-American Kirk Kerkorian.
* 2006 — Sony NEC Optiarc Inc, a 55:45 (Sony 55%, NEC 45%) joint venture of Sony Corporation and NEC Corporation, was established in April.
* 2006 — Obtained an option to acquire half of Michael Jackson's 50% stake in Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
* 2006 — Acquired digital Single Lens Reflex (Digital SLR) cameras section from Konica Minolta including digital camera support and servicing.
* 2006 — Acquired Grouper Networks (now Crackle, Inc.), a Sausalito-based startup company that created a user generated video sharing platform and P2P technology for $65M.
* 2006 — Field Emission Technologies Inc., a carve-out of Sony's nano-Spindt FED technology. Established in December 2006 by Technology Carve-Out Investment LLP (62.2%) and Sony (37.8%).
* 2007 — Qreatic Design Inc, a 50:50 joint venture of Sony Corporation and Qimonda AG.
* 2007 — Moversa GmbH, a 50:50 joint venture of Sony Corporation and NXP Semiconductors.
* 2008 — Acquired Gracenote, Inc. for $260M.
* 2008 — Acquired Bertelsmann AG's 50% stake in Sony BMG Music Entertainment. (Credit: Wikipedia)

Columbia Pictures

Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. It was one of the so-called Little Three among the eight major film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Today, as part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group—owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony—it is one of the leading film companies in the world, a member of the so-called Big Six. It has no connection with CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System).

The studio, founded in 1919 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry Cohn and Joe Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. It adopted the Columbia Pictures name in 1924 and went public two years later. In its early years a minor player in Hollywood, Columbia began to grow in the late 1920s, spurred by a successful association with director Frank Capra.

With Capra and others, Columbia became one of the primary homes of the screwball comedy. In the 1930s, Columbia's major contract stars were Jean Arthur and Cary Grant (who was shared with RKO Pictures). In the 1940s, Rosalind Russell, Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, and William Holden became major stars at the studio.

In 1982, the studio was purchased by Coca-Cola; that same year it launched Tri-Star Pictures as a joint venture with HBO and CBS. Five years later, Coca-Cola divested Columbia, which merged with Tri-Star. After a brief period of independence, the combined studio was acquired by Sony in 1989.

The Sony years to present

The Columbia Pictures empire was sold in 1989 to electronics giant Sony, one of several Japanese firms then buying American properties. Sony then hired two producers, Peter Guber and Jon Peters to serve as co-heads of production when Sony also acquired Guber-Peters Entertainment. Guber and Peters had just signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros; to extricate them from this contract, Sony ended up paying hundreds of millions of dollars, gave up a half-interest in its Columbia House Records Club mail-order business, and bought from Warner the former MGM studio in Culver City which Warners had acquired in its takeover of Lorimar in 1990. Sony spent $100 million to refurbish the rechristened Sony Pictures Studios. Guber and Peters set out to prove they were worth this fortune, and though there were to be some successes, there were also many costly flops. Peters resigned in 1991, to be followed soon after by Guber.

The entire operation was reorganized and renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) in 1991, and at the same time, TriStar (which had officially lost its hyphen) relauched its television division. Publicly humiliated, Sony suffered an enormous loss on its investment in Columbia, taking a $2.7 billion write-off in 1994. John Calley took over as SPE president in November 1996, installing Amy Pascal as Columbia Pictures president and Chris Lee as president of production at TriStar. By the next spring, the studios were clearly rebounding, setting a record pace at the box office. In 1998, Columbia and TriStar merged to form the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group (a.k.a. Columbia TriStar Pictures), though both studios still produce under their own names. Pascal retained her position as president of the newly united Columbia Pictures, while Lee became the combined studio's head of production.

In 1994, Columbia Pictures Television and TriStar Television were integrated into Columbia TriStar Television (CTT). In 1994 as well, the television library expanded when Susan Stafford sold Barry & Enright Productions, which included the post-scandal Jack Barry Productions (excluding those owned by NBC), to CTT. The company also purchased Bob Stewart Productions. In 1999, Sony Pictures Entertainment relaunched the Screen Gems brand as a horror and independent film distribution company and TriStar Television was folded into CTT. Two years later, CPT was folded into CTT as well.

In the 1990's, Columbia announced plans of a rival James Bond franchise, since they owned the rights of Casino Royale and were planning to make a third version of Thunderball with Kevin McClory. MGM and Danjaq, LLC, owners of the franchise, sued Sony Pictures in 1997, with the legal dispute ending two years later in an out-of-court settlement. Sony traded the Casino Royale rights for $10 million, and the Spider-Man filming rights. The superhero has since become Columbia's most successful franchise, with the first movie coming out in 2002 and having since since gained two sequels, with plans for two more.

In the 2000s, Sony broadened its release schedule by creating Sony Pictures Classics for arthouse fare, and by backing Revolution Studios, the production company headed by Joe Roth. In 2002, Columbia TriStar Television was renamed Sony Pictures Television. Also in 2002, Columbia broke the record for biggest domestic theatrical gross, with a tally of $1,575.1 billion, which was raised by such blockbusters as Spider-Man, Men in Black II and xXx. The studio was also the most lucrative of 2004, with over $1.4 billion dollars in the domestic box office with movies such as Spider-Man 2, 50 First Dates and The Grudge, and in 2006, Columbia, helped by such blockbusters as The Da Vinci Code, The Pursuit of Happyness and Casino Royale, not only regained first place, but it reached an all time record high cume of $1,710.9 billion, which is still an all-time yearly record for any studio.

Websites

Profiles

If you would like to make a media-related inquiry regarding Sony Australia, please contact the individuals listed below. For any other inquiries click on Locations to get the contact details of the Sony Australia office in your state.

Jenny Geddes/Nina Hearne
Corporate Communications Manager
Sony Australia Limited
33-39 Talavera Road
North Ryde NSW 2113
Tel: (61 2) 9887 6666

or contact our PR agency

The Stenmark Organisation
Lvl 4, 53 Walker Street
North Sydney NSW 2060
Tel (6 12) 9955 1822

Credit: Sony Australia

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