[QUOTE="Mordros"] Jaster_DCX's comments are out of the question, despite your assertion to the contrary. They're flat out ridiculous, and those who have some knowledge about the actual, real financial positions of these corporations know that they have absolutely no merit. That you are adopting this stance is clear demonstration of your complete ignorance of this subject.

Nintendo had more cash ($7.4 billion) than Sony ($7.2 billion) as of 3/31/05. Nintendo has more ability to spend their cash freely, for example on the $200 million of R&D expenses incurred during fiscal year '05. Sony, on the other hand, has many financial obligations limiting how they can spend their cash. As just one example, Sony must use about $1 billion in cash every year to service their debt. That's one hell of a credit card bill. Also, Sony's financial segment has customer deposits in excess of $5 billion - Sony is acting as a bank, and thus must in theory be able to satisfy any and all withdrawals that happen against those accounts. Granted, it would be extraodinarily unlikely for all $5 billion to be withdrawn, and Sony has methods to generate cash to back those accounts, but Sony has many obligations of this type. Their resources are heavily committed to their current operations and liabilities.

Nintendo on the other hand has zero material debt. Their interest expense for 2005 was less than one thousand dollars. If you have a mortgage, you might very well spend more on interest than Nintendo. Nintendo doesn't spend $59 billion dollars a year, so they don't have to make $60 billion in revenue in order to keep up with Sony. That's right, in FY 2005 Nintendo made 97% as much profit as Sony's entire global operation ($970 million as opposed to $1 billion) - on 7% of the revenue, $4.4 billion dollars!

Nintendo makes gross profits of 22 cents on every dollar of sales. Sony's game division makes about 8 cents on every dollar of sales and only took in about 45% more revenue than Nintendo did over the last five years, despite their near-total dominance of the home console market. This left them with income from their game division of about $2.4 billion over the last five years, less than half that of Nintendo, at $4.9 billion.

When you look at the big picture for Sony, you find that they make less than 2 cents gross profit on every dollar of sales. This is why, despite making sales of approximately $60 billion a year, over the last five years they only made 2.3% more after tax profit than Nintendo - $3.7 billion to Nintendo's $3.62 billion.

Nintendo's global operations are much smaller than Sony's, to be true, but that is mostly because Sony's global operations are largely financed by over $50 billion dollars in debt. Nintendo has more ability to generate profit, more purchasing power, more ready cash, more flexibility and more security. Sony is quite figuratively living paycheck to paycheck - whereas Nintendo has all the bills paid, is living on a fixed income, and steadily and surely accumulating a fortune under the matress.

Sony had to borrow another $2 billion in 2005 just to keep their cash flow steady. They are not a profitable company. They are laying off 10,000 workers and cutting costs because they have become so bloated and inefficient. They are not in a position to buy squat right now, much less Nintendo.

I am not speaking as a fanboy here. The truth of the numbers involved, and the accounting concepts at work that make it possible to compare Sony and Nintendo as financial entities allow me to make comparisons based not on feelings, but on analysis of objectively reported facts. If Nintendo was in trouble I would tell you straight up, and I would be worried. I'm not worried about Nintendo because Nintendo is fiscally healthy, almost absurdly so; with a proven track record of profitability.

I don't hate Sony. Sometimes I am frustrated by their products, but I don't bear them any particular ill will. I am not saying, "Sony is a bad company", I am saying, "Sony is in a bad financial position, possibly in trouble, certainly unable to purchase a closely held company in good financial shape such as Nintendo."

Nintendo's financial reports
Sony's financial reports
Chickgamer

Nice post. Very good read!