Sony aims to make a killing from 007

In what is indisputably the finest of the comic Bonds, Live and Let Die, a state trooper tells Sheriff J. W. Pepper that 007 is a secret agent. “Secret agent?” he drawls, incredulously. “On whose side?” It is a good question in business terms, too: who does James Bond really work for? The answer is Eon Productions, then the studios, then the consumer goods companies and then the talent. In that order - reports The Times.

Over a span of 21 films, Bond has grossed more than $3.5 billion (£1.8 billion) at the box office. The rough estimate is that Bond has taken in the same again in DVD and video sales. Hollywood executives put a value on the catalogue at $1 billion. And his indirect sales — promotion of Aston Martin cars, Omega watches and Brioni suits — is much harder to calculate, but runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars. So, even before Casino Royale opens in cinemas tomorrow, Ian Fleming’s invention has become a franchise worth nearly $10 billion.

Now Sony is looking to put Bond to work, not just in order to recoup on its investment in MGM but also to burnish its battered reputation and boost its newest consumer technology. Sir Howard Stringer, Sony’s chief executive, could certainly do with some help. Just a few months ago the first foreign chief executive of the totemic Japanese company had just reported his fourth successive quarter of better-than- expected financial results. Then things started blowing up: that is, Sony-made batteries inside a range of laptop computers. A few weeks later Sony announced that it would have to delay the launch of PlayStation3 in Europe until after Christmas.

The scale of the problems with the batteries and PS3 have been, arguably, as overhyped as the Bond film. Sony may take less of a financial hit from the battery recall than was first feared; it will also make less of a fortune from the Bond film than the publicity would suggest. Still, the current and next Bond films, as well as the Pink Panther movie, mean that Sony will more than cover the costs of the $250 million investment it made as part of the consortium that bought MGM.

The significance of the MGM relationship for Sony, though, is not financial. (Indeed, it is even less financial after Sony this year lost the right to distribute MGM’s DVDs.) The tie-up with another studio has helped to ensure that Sony does not repeat the mistake that it made with Betamax when it comes to its next consumer offering, a verson of high-definition DVD players: Sony has developed Blu-ray, which is generally considered to be a superior technology to HD-DVD, which was developed by a Toshiba-led consortium. Betamax, too, was superior to VHS, but Sony failed to tie in the Hollywood studios and lost the battle for video. Sony may like some sequels but, with its studio tie-ups, is wisely avoiding that one.

Away from the bright lights, Sir Howard may also be reaping the benefits of a sense of crisis at Sony. The other foreigner who took over a great Japanese company, Carlos Ghosn at Nissan, came in when the business was in dire trouble and brought in a fresh management team. Sir Howard has not been so lucky. Now he is getting the chance to make toplevel personnel changes.

The need for action is spurred further by talk for the first time in Tokyo that Sony could even be a takeover target. It has been noticed that Steve Jobs’s Apple is highly valued and needs to look for new avenues of growth. So, might Apple buy Sony? Well, that’s as fanciful as a Bond plot.

Thanks to `Brokenclaw` for the alert.

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