Quote: "So Sony's revenue is 63,980,000,000,000,000?"
No. That would be in UK billions, the US measure one billion as 1000 million so it would be 63,980,000,000,000.
I really don't think you realize how many pies Sony has a finger in. For a quick look see
this list. Purely on the movie studio front they own studios such as TriStar Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems and 20% of MGM (which owns MGM Pictures, United Artists and Orion Pictures) plus others. Surely you have read how much these companies invest in each modern blockbuster and how much they take at the box office worldwide? Staggering amounts. Add to that all of their respective television production companies (e.g. Columbia Pictures Television, TriStar Television, Sony Pictures Television etc) plus Castle Rock Entertainment, Adelaide Productions, etc. etc. On the music front they own Columbia Records, Epic Records and Legacy Recordings (plus others) which includes hundreds of massive earning artists.
Here are just some of the figures I found doing a quick search. The
London Stock Exchange has Sony Corp's current market capital as $39.28 billion (in other words their retained money).
Their Life Insurance company 'Sony Life' alone has a net worth of $2,273,167,531 USD ($2.27 billion) as of the end of March 2006 - see their
Disclosure of Embedded Value document (pdf). Did you even know they did life insurance? I mentioned it because I didn't.
Sony Chemicals Corp consolidated with Sony Miyagi Corp to form Sony Chemical & Information Device Corporation in July 2006 and had
joint sales of $1.25 billion that year (thats sales in a single year, not what they are worth).
Sony Corp
sales and operating revenue (that means the money earnt from sales and services in a year, NOT what they are worth) for 2005 was $61.64 billion.
<EDIT> The figures you link to Raven may only be for the second quarter of 2006 as I don't think the full years figure is out yet.
</EDIT> Can you imagine what this would make the corporation worth if thats just what they sold in one year?
Of course you have to add the hundreds (if not thousands) of other companies they own such as Sony Semiconductors (of which there are lots), Shanghai Suoguang Electronics, Sony Ericsson (50% ownership), Sony Bank etc. plus all the premises they own, equipment, research, intellectual property, patents etc.
Microsofts market value is more (after all, there are little raw materials needed to make software and therefore more profit) but their sales and assets are not as big as Sony's.
EDIT: I just want to make it clear that my posting here was to try to point out to people just how huge Sony is as a whole. Its not just a company that make consoles. It can't just be bought by Microsoft with their spare change. Whether Sony Computer Entertainment (of which there are many individual companies) suffers losses or somehow gets eaten by giant moths, it wouldn't effect Sony as much as people think.
Quote: "The moral of this story boys and girls is that Wikipedia is NOT 100% accurate. Zappo, I have to totally agree with Raven here, I believe Sony know their own finances better than some random dude who likes to waste his time editting pages in Wikipedia."
Actually, I think the moral is to do your own research and read things properly rather than relying on someone elses interpretation.
