Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758) is still in the crosshairs of Dan Loeb and his fund Third Point. Nikkei reported today that Third Point plans to re-register a sizeable portion of its Sony shares under its own name. This will enable it to file shareholder resolutions and do other things to push for change in the company’s management structure, according to the newspaper.
Good thing Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai believes the activist campaign against his company is “a good thing.”
Third Point pushes even harder against Sony
Last month Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758) rejected Loeb’s proposal to spin off its entertainment business into a separate company. Currently Third Point has about a 7 percent stake in Sony under a number of different names. Toward the end of this month, about 3 percent of that stake will be re-registered under Third Point’s name, according to Nikkei.
That amount will enable the firm to request that Sony hold extraordinary shareholder meetings and even propose that members of the company’s board be dismissed.
Sony likes Loeb’s activist campaign
On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal’s Daisuke Wakabayashi reported that Third Point’s campaign to get Sony to spin off its entertainment business has been good for the company, even though he thinks they should not spin it off. Loeb had been trying to get Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758) to spin off up to 20 percent of its entertainment arm into a separate public entity.
Hirai told The Wall Street Journal that all Loeb’s campaign has done is “shed a light on” the entertainment properties Sony has been trying to spotlight “for the longest time.” He said the entertainment business should have higher profit margins and that the approval process through Sony Pictures should be refined.
In general, he said he has “a fairly good relationship with the folks from Third Point, including Dan.”
“If I get a nice letter pointing out some issues that he thinks are legitimate, then why should I be combative?” he told The WSJ.
