News ► Sony sells all its shares in Square Enix

[Gexus]

Sony announced today their plans to sell all of their 9.52 million shares in Square Enix, which amount to a nearly 9% stake in the company overall. The pricing and other details will be shared tomorrow.

The PlayStation manufacturer will be booking a gain of 4.8 billion yen (roughly $47 million US dollars), selling their shares to a large brokerage firm in Japan named SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.

The reason behind the sale is currently unknown, though it should be expected to be revealed when Sony announce their annual report on May 14th. One likely explanation might be the company's own financial troubles, despite their overwhelming success with the PlayStation 4.

Sony originally purchased 18.6% stake in Squaresoft back in 2001, in order to help mend their financial woes caused by the failing film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Soon after, Square merged with its competitor Enix and became the company we've known ever since.

The impact of this sale on the future of franchises such as Kingdom Hearts is most likely mininmal, seeing as such low shares in Square Enix might not have influenced their platform decisions very much in the past. After all, they were nonvoting shares which meant that they never had any impact on the developer to begin with.

Source: Sony

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Well, Sony needs the money and it's nothing like way back in the PS1/PS2 days where Square Enix released Sony exclusives. Surprised Sony didn't sell the shares years ago.

(and yes, we have this topic in four different places on the forum. just roll with it)

 

[Gram]

Soooooooo no more sony exclusives? Or will this even affect anything at all?

 

[Sign]

Soooooooo no more sony exclusives? Or will this even affect anything at all?

Like it's been said in the article, this really doesn't affect Square Enix at all.

The shares that Sony had acquired all those years ago (back when it was still Square Soft) were nonvoting. This is very important to acknowledge because it basically means they held little to no power or influence within the company. After the merger with Enix, whatever position and power they might have possessed was significantly diluted to the point where there was pretty much no point in having the shares at all.

Sony is in a bit of a sticky right now, financially, so they decided to just sell the shares than continue with them.

tl;dr - this affects nothing but Sony's wallet. Like Ethy said, it's surprising that they didn't sell them years ago.

 

[Gram]

Like it's been said in the article, this really doesn't affect Square Enix at all.

The shares that Sony had acquired all those years ago (back when it was still Square Soft) were nonvoting. This is very important to acknowledge because it basically means they held little to no power or influence within the company. After the merger with Enix, whatever position and power they might have possessed was significantly diluted to the point where there was pretty much no point in having the shares at all.

Sony is in a bit of a sticky right now, financially, so they decided to just sell the shares than continue with them.

tl;dr - this affects nothing but Sony's wallet. Like Ethy said, it's surprising that they didn't sell them years ago.

I dont keep up with things like this so I was kinda surprised Sony was in such a dire position money wise.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I dont keep up with things like this so I was kinda surprised Sony was in such a dire position money wise.

It is a fairly recent thing. They predicted their annual loss would be $1.1b back in February but we won't find out the full details until their report until in May.

 

[Launchpad]

KH3 is cancelled, you heard it here first.

 

[Gram]

KH3 is cancelled, you heard it here first.

It's always the ones that joke that end up being right~ >3> (to everyones sadness)

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

KH3 is cancelled, you heard it here first.

No no no. Kingdom Hearts 3 PS4/XB1 versions cancelled, moved to smartphones; free app with IAPs, tap to win social gachapon.

 

[WaveK89]

Holy left field, Batman!

It's just that you really forget that they had shares to begin with. Eh, I doubt this affects their relationship. It is what it is. Business business business as one could say.

 

[makine]

No no no. Kingdom Hearts 3 PS4/XB1 versions cancelled, moved to smartphones; free app with IAPs, tap to win social gachapon.

INCORRECT. SE is finally going to get back in Nintendo's good graces and put everything on Wii U. First will be ports of 1.5 and 2.5 (which will have the PS3 version cancelled) with both RE:coded and REays playable in 2014 and 2015, respectively, then a RE:3D using the Gamepad for Reality Shifts in 2016, and finally KH3 in 2017.

#DealWithIt

 

[Launchpad]

INCORRECT. SE is finally going to get back in Nintendo's good graces and put everything on Wii U. First will be ports of 1.5 and 2.5 (which will have the PS3 version cancelled) with both RE:coded and REays playable in 2014 and 2015, respectively, then a RE:3D using the Gamepad for Reality Shifts in 2016, and finally KH3 in 2017.

#DealWithIt

This guy thinks the Wii U is gonna get some games. Look at him and laugh.

​i haven't played my wii u in so long

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

INCORRECT. SE is finally going to get back in Nintendo's good graces and put everything on Wii U. First will be ports of 1.5 and 2.5 (which will have the PS3 version cancelled) with both RE:coded and REays playable in 2014 and 2015, respectively, then a RE:3D using the Gamepad for Reality Shifts in 2016, and finally KH3 in 2017.

#DealWithIt

Nope, because that will also be cancelled and it will all be mobile gachapons.

 

[AlphaJW]

KH HD 1.5/2.5 ReMIX for Xbox 360/One!

 

[Launchpad]

KH HD 1.5/2.5 ReMIX for Xbox 360/One!

There are kind of a lot of threads for that topic already.

Anyways, this hardly seems important considering the last Sony exclusive SE games have been HD rereleases. Nothing new has been exclusive.

 

[Lea]

Can someone smart explain this to the dumb 17 year-old who has near to no knowledge about stocks?

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Can someone smart explain this to the dumb 17 year-old who has near to no knowledge about stocks?

It's basically like owning a part of the company and has mostly to do with finances and the stock exchange/stock market.

Basically, back in the day when then-Squaresoft had a huge flop at hand with the movie Final Fantasy - The spirits within, Sony got up and purchased some available shares/stocks of the company because they believed they would recover (and had already provided Sony with a line of good products) and by doing this Sony provided Square with some much needed cash after the disaster and loss that was the first FF movie.
By doing this, Sony practically "owned" around 11% of Squaresoft and around 9% after the merger with Enix. It theoretically allows Sony, like any other shareholder, to attend shareholder meetings and have a voice in what the company should do. It's a bit like elected offcials in a parliament have a say in what is done in politics, only that in the business world it is decided through money, not elections.
I'm no expert on economics, so I cannot really explain as to why it is that way, but it seems that Sony's shares of Square are/were "non-voting" anyways so despite of owning said sharings Sony never had a true say/influence on Square's business decisions.

Now,today, Sony itself is in a situation where they need more money at hand quickly (while the PS4 is doing really good, they are still a bit in a fickle financically) and since their shares of Square are non-voting anyways they decided to sell them in order to get some more cash
into their pockets.

All in all it has really only to do with company finances and nothing with their policies or products, so people speculating or fretting what this could mean for single game series or what consoles they release on is a bit over the top.

 

[InternationalGMR]

Personally I don't see Kingdom Hearts III being cancelled but I do see there being a possibility where due to sales of FFXV selling more on PS4 than Xbox One will get Square to realize "Hey this is selling more on a Sony console".

 

[Sign]

Personally I don't see Kingdom Hearts III being cancelled but I do see there being a possibility where due to sales of FFXV selling more on PS4 than Xbox One will get Square to realize "Hey this is selling more on a Sony console".

Oh, there's no doubt they already know that after what happened with Final Fantasy XIII. While it was their decision to release the games on the Xbone as well, Microsoft did have to make it worth their while.

But that really has nothing to do with Sony selling their shares. There was never much point in them owning them to begin with. It's a surprise they didn't sell them years ago since they weren't benefiting from it.