# Sony has a one billion dollar 'goodwill' loss. What? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 30, 2017, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606 "2017-01-30T19:41:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HeweyLogan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heweylogan/32/547_2.png) [@HeweyLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeweyLogan)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606/21 "2017-02-02T17:06:00Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > … As the second post and coming from a person just passing through and not at all knowledgeable about the OP (but curious after reading the question) that was a hell of a reply freido. Concise, to the point, and explained in a way that perfectly makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606/22 "2017-02-02T17:15:03Z")
Hey, I’d buy LSLGuy’s Wonder Soap in a heartbeat! This does indicate to me why valuations, especially corporate valuations made with varied and often Byzantine tax rules in mind are mostly bunk. The difference what they paid for 28 years ago and what its value is now in no way reflects how much money they made or lost in the interim. And FWIW they made a lot, in the 1990’s the business was booming. Its like saying that because a person was born in a hosptal and also died in one; they never had a real life, since they never went anywhere, A different concept, but it reminds me of when Western companies went into the Eastern Bloc after the collapse on Communism and purchased and sold Industrial concerns for pennies on the dollarr, well below what they were worth. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606/23 "2017-02-02T17:45:08Z")
> [@HeweyLogan](#): > > As the second post and coming from a person just passing through and not at all knowledgeable about the OP (but curious after reading the question) that was a hell of a reply freido. Concise, to the point, and explained in a way that perfectly makes sense. As the OP I’ll second that. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606/24 "2017-02-03T13:35:33Z")
I also greatly appreciated **friedo** ’s reply - thanks for that! A general question for folks who understand the situation better than I - by “home video” do they mean VHS tapes, or DVD/Blu-Ray? Because to me, “home video” has always just meant VHS - but no-one has been releasing movies on VHS for a decade now (with the exception of the odd promotional or gimmick release). I realise they’re probably referring to Blu-Ray/DVD but you can never tell with Hollywood Accounting™. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606/25 "2017-02-03T14:31:57Z")
Yeah, definitely DVD/Blu-Ray, which is being murdered by streaming. VHS was dead and buried long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2017, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606/26 "2017-02-03T15:23:05Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > A general question for folks who understand the situation better than I - by “home video” do they mean VHS tapes, or DVD/Blu-Ray? Because to me, “home video” has always just meant VHS - but no-one has been releasing movies on VHS for a decade now (with the exception of the odd promotional or gimmick release). Home video means any non-cinematic, non-rental film revenue (though some film studious are probably accounting for income from streaming services and digital downloads separately now). I’m not sure why you’d limit “video” to VHS; “video” has always had more meanings than just a contraction of video cassette. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606/27 "2017-02-04T00:20:26Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Home video means any non-cinematic, non-rental film revenue (though some film studious are probably accounting for income from streaming services and digital downloads separately now). I’m not sure why you’d limit “video” to VHS; “video” has always had more meanings than just a contraction of video cassette. It was always used to mean VHS when I was growing up (“Coming soon to Home Video!”) and when I got into the retail tech sector later on, people used “DVD” to refer to movies people would buy or rent to watch at home. Basically, I haven’t heard the term “Home Video” used since the VHS era, hence the association for me. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606/28 "2017-02-04T13:52:48Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > It was always used to mean VHS when I was growing up (“Coming soon to Home Video!”) and when I got into the retail tech sector later on, people used “DVD” to refer to movies people would buy or rent to watch at home. > > Basically, I haven’t heard the term “Home Video” used since the VHS era, hence the association for me. I remember hearing “Available on video and DVD.” back when. No “home”. Which is of course really stupid. The correct phrase would be “Available on VHS and DVD.” But “home video”, properly, would include all media. That ignorant people sometimes don’t use it as such doesn’t mean anything. It’s like how people using “light year” to talk about time doesn’t mean that it’s proper usage as distance is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606/29 "2017-02-06T15:08:48Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > It was always used to mean VHS when I was growing up (“Coming soon to Home Video!”)… Well, yeah, because it was the _only_ home video format when you were growing up. There were Laser Discs, of course, but the number of outlets offering LD rentals was basically just noise statistically. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606/30 "2017-02-06T15:27:42Z")
> [@leahcim](#): > > So long as they didn’t lie in their accounting, about how much “non tangible” value there was in the transaction, no. Goodwill, even large amounts of goodwill, is a legitimate concept in accounting in these transactions, and simply being wrong about how much an acquisition is worth is not a crime. > > You can say that Sony should have known that SPE was not worth as much as they paid for it 30 years ago, but that is not an _accounting_ scandal. They just made a big bet, and were wrong. Upthread I brought up the discrete topic of a (forgotten-by-me) “Enron-level” accounting scandal, to help isolate what goodwill is for real and what it is when monkeying around, and having tried to do the legwork without becoming too confused, I’m now asking for help from someone who actually knows what he’s talking about: [This page](http://www.accounting-degree.org/scandals/) from an accounting ed website is an infographic on “10 worst accounting scandals of all time,” with a sentence or two description of the malfeasance. Which are cases where illegal activities around goodwill was the highlight? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606/31 "2017-02-06T21:57:39Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, yeah, because it was the _only_ home video format when you were growing up. There were Laser Discs, of course, but the number of outlets offering LD rentals was basically just noise statistically. The only “home video” when I was growing up was OTA TV. As to recorded medium- I used Beta for the majority of the tape era. (I still have working machines that I use to archive old recordings.) VHS? Give me a break. “Available on Beta and VHS.” was a common refrain for a while. Then just “Available on VHS.” Why the switch to “video” around when DVD came along is incredibly perplexing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sony-has-a-one-billion-dollar-goodwill-loss-what/778606.md?page=1)