*spit take* Sony Entertainment to cut $100M using

[Nuclear Unicorn]

Bain & Co.

Sony Entertainment has hired management firm Bain & Company to identify inefficiencies within the company and advise it on more than $100 million in planned cuts to its staff and overhead, according to an individual with knowledge of the studio’s plans.

...

The move comes after a bruising summer for the studio, which suffered several high-profile film flops such as “After Earth” and “White House Down” and box office disappointments such as “Elysium” and “Smurfs 2.” Things have picked up in the fall, as its TV studio produced the TV show turned phenomenon “Breaking Bad” and its film division offered “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2? and “Captain Phillips.”

The studio has also had to contend with a very public and noisy campaign by activist investor Daniel Loeb, who tried to pressure Sony’s parent company to spend off its entertainment assets into a separate publicly traded company.

In August, Sony’s board unanimously turned down Loeb’s proposal, but Sony Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai has publicly stated that the studio needs to improve its greenlighting process and become more efficient in how it spends money.


http://movies.yahoo.com/news/sony-cut-more-100m-coming-months-220307244.html

Wait. Smurfs 2 was a flop? Whaaaa!

$100M is a lot of jobs and jobs that rely on those jobs. I'm not sure how Bain will help on the greenlighting issue but I'm sure they'll make a boatload to say whatever it is they'll say.

[sharp_stick]

1. Glad I don't work there

Anytime you see a consultant come in to identify inefficiencies you wind up with assholes like these and people threatening to burn this place to the ground.



I do love that movie.

[leftyohiolib]

2. say goodbye to your pensions

[n2doc]

3. Maybe a better option is to not give Will Smith huge money for a family vanity flick n/t

[loli phabay]

10. this,

[FatBuddy]

4. They could start by not making shit entertainment

[Nuclear Unicorn]

5. I can't wait for brain recorders to come on line so we can see what goes on in an exec's head

[JHB]

6. That's about half of a big movie these days...

...less than half for the really big-budget ones.

What does Bain know about making better picks for movie production?

Nada. What they know is anything that makes the numbers look better from on high.

Look for them to cut and squeeze the people who make their product, as always.

[joeglow3]

7. If you spend $105 for $100, that is a flop

Smurfs 2 cost $105mm to make.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

9. "Smurfs 2 cost $105mm to make."

Wow. Somebody needs to be waterboarded for that.

[Romulox]

8. Sony has ruined Jeopardy. Dumbed down. Tons of Sony product placement in questions...

Fact checking isn't very good on Jeopardy, either.

[librechik]

11. Bain is there to strip them and sell off the assets. Period.

and yes, fight to the death to avoid paying fair pensions (the retirees usually die before the law firms runs out of billable hours)

[Nuclear Unicorn]

12. This is a consultancy, not a hostile takeover.

Sony is worth billions and this is a $100M head-cutting exercise of which Bain's fee is probably only a fraction.

That doesn't mean a lot of workers aren't in for a lot of hurt, they are; but this isn't the scenario you describe (though it has happened overmuch in the past).