Dubai Int’l buys unknown chunk of Sony

Bloomberg News is reporting that Dubai International Capital has purchased an undisclosed yet “substantial” stake in Sony. Apparently it was known early this month (November 2007) that Dubai as looking to invest $500 million in a Japanese company, though it cannot be confirmed that money was all spent on Sony, which is based in Tokyo (as in Japan).

Dubai is, according to Bloomberg, a $13 billion fund manager that has invested in European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. and HSBC Holdings Plc. If $500 million was paid, Bloomberg estimates it would have bought 1 percent of Sony based on the current stock price. Seems like a chump cut but, if 500 million is only 1 percent, that would make Sony worth $50 billion. Heck, I’d even enjoy only 1/2 percent of that.

So far there is no word on how this will effect the videogame side of Sony. It doesn’t bode well especially since the game division is losing money with the pricey PS3. After the deal was announced, Sony’s stock rose 4.6 percent to close at 5,500 yen (US$49.95) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Unless there are more big money buys into Sony out there, I expect investors to jump on the Sony bandwagon and analysts to start give stronger recommendations for its stock. Let’s hope that translates into less expensive and better games – and systems – for us gamers.

Read [Bloomberg News] Also Read [GameDaily] Also Read [The Inquirer] Also Read [ZDNet]