, Columnist
A Small Step for Sony, a Big Win for Japan
The view that the nation’s boardrooms and C-suites are stubborn, conservative and slow-moving is becoming outdated.
Not so stubborn after all.
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
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Dan Loeb’s team is unlikely to be popping champagne corks over Sony’s decision to sell its stake in Olympus Corp. Investors in Japan have reason to put a few crates of bubbly on ice, though.
The sale was a mere side note on the laundry list of changes that Loeb’s Third Point LLC asked for at Sony, in an eight-page letter published June 13. But on Thursday, that’s exactly what the Japanese electronics giant did, agreeing to sell to sell its 5% interest back to Olympus for 80.4 billion yen ($760 million).