分拆索尼不容易

    索尼公司（Sony）的畅销电视品牌Bravia的意思是“凶猛、野蛮、狂野、野性十足的”。当索尼的高管考虑来自国外的最新收购要约时，他们的脑海中很可能就涌现出这些形容词。这种收购对日本中规中矩的商业规则造成了很大冲击。

    最近到底是哪家海外机构这么大胆，敢对日本公司下手呢？原来是美国的一家对冲基金。作为索尼最大的股东之一，它提出索尼应该剥离20%的娱乐业务，同时借助他们的基金重整旗鼓，大力发展目前业绩不佳的电子消费品业务。这家基金公司就是Third Point。5月14日，该公司CEO丹尼尔•勒布在《纽约时报》（New York Times）上首度发表了一封致索尼总裁平井一夫的公开信。信中建议，索尼应将自己的摇钱树——娱乐业务的15%到20%分拆上市。多年以来，分析师们一直认为这种建议哪怕不是那么势在必行，也非常合理。受此刺激，索尼的股票应声上涨。

    不过奇怪的是，日本方面对此并无回应。索尼只是发布了一份简短的声明，彬彬有礼地回绝了这一提议。考虑到勒布先生对索尼有很大的控股权——他的基金拥有6400万股索尼股票，相当于该公司6.5%的股权，索尼这种反应就不免让人觉得有点惊讶了。平井在该声明中称：“娱乐业务对索尼实现增长至关重要，不会出售。”

    声明结尾写道：“我们希望在推行自己战略的进程中，继续与股东进行建设性对话。”鉴于日本长期以来不会容忍任何股东耍心眼，尤其是对那些一心想抓住机会大赚一票的外国股东更不例外，我们建议这个结尾最好写成“只要你们和大多数日本股东一样不声不响，不提过多要求”。在日本，从来就没有多少人会积极参与股东维权活动。

    这并不等于没希望了。位于东京的Eurotechnology公司的杰哈德•法索尔表示：“勒布先生的提议确实来得有点突然，所以日本方面没立即回应也并不奇怪。而且平井先生和勒布先生过去也不常会晤。”不过法索尔先生也不清楚勒布到底能在多大程度上心想事成。他说：“他对索尼其实并没有那么大的控股权。毕竟索尼和夏普（Sharp）还不太一样。索尼没有遇到夏普那样大的问题，所以还没被逼上绝路。”索尼只能寄希望于那些外国搅局者自行消失，就像一直困扰索尼、亏损达八年之久的电视产品线一样。

    不管怎么说，和外国股东之间的斗争到最后几乎总是对日本公司有利。六年前，Steel Partners提出了一项收购要约，要买下日本著名酱料巨头Bull-Dog公司90%的股份。这家食品公司请来了援手，随后采用了一个自杀式方案，从美国人的魔爪下杀出了一条活路。最后，日本法院判定这个自杀式方案有效。

    Sony's best selling TV, the Bravia, translates as "ferocious, savage, wild, untamed" -- the very adjectives that are probably on the minds of Sony executives as they consider the latest bid from gaijin, or outsiders, to upset the highly ordered decorum of doing business in Japan.

    The latest audacity aimed at Japan from beyond its shining seas? A U.S. hedge fund, one of Sony's (SNE) biggest shareholders, has proposed the firm should spin off up to 20% of its entertainment business and use the funds to revive and focus on its struggling electronics arm. In a May 14 letter to Sony President Kazuo Hirai, first published in the New York Times, Daniel Loeb, chief executive of hedge fund Third Point, suggested Sony take 15% to 20% of the entertainment unit, the one that makes Sony money, public. In the light of such counsel, which analysts have for years been calling on as sound if not essential, Sony shares are surging.

    Oddly the reaction in Japan has been muted, with Sony merely issuing a terse statement to politely and gently rebut the advice, although apparently it may have come as a recent surprise that Mr Loeb held such a large control -- his fund owns 64 million Sony shares, which is about a 6.5% stake in Sony. "The entertainment businesses are important contributors to Sony's growth and are not for sale," wrote Hirai in Sony's statement.

    It ends: "We look forward to continuing constructive dialogue with our shareholders as we pursue our strategy." A suggestion, given Japan's long history of not tolerating any shenanigans from shareholders, particularly foreigners with an eye out for the main chance, that would have better ended as "just as long as you are as quiet and undemanding as the average Japanese shareholder." Shareholder activism has never been much of a participating sport in Japan.

    But there is hope. "Mr Loeb's proposal certainly came out of the blue, so I am not surprised that there is no immediate response," says Gerhard Fasol of Tokyo-based Eurotechnology. "And Mr Hirai did meet Mr Loeb which was not always the case in the past." However Mr. Fasol is unsure just how far Mr. Loeb may get. "He does not have that much power over Sony. After all they are not like Sharp ," he says. "They don't have the same problems as Sharp so they don't have a gun to their heads." The hope must be that like the the other Bravia that is plaguing Sony -- its eight years of loss-making TVs -- the foreign meddlers might just disappear.

    Struggles with foreign shareholders have nearly always turned to favor Japanese companies, after all. Just six years ago when Steel Partners launched a tender offer for the 90% of a famous Japanese sauce maker, Bull-Dog, the food firm sought a white knight intervention and then a poison pill to save itself from an aggressive takeover bid from the Americans. Finally, Japanese courts voted in favor of the pill.