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Thursday, November 20, 2008
Sony Electronics President Sees Some Holiday Optimism
Donna Fuscaldo
FOXBusiness
While the consumer electronics market is bracing for a tough holiday season this year, Sony Electronics President and Chief Operating Officer Stan Glasgow has some reason to be optimistic.
“We knew it would be extremely challenging,” said Glasgow at a media briefing early Thursday. Nevertheless there will be some areas that see pockets of strength. Glasgow pointed to Sony’s Digital SLR cameras, its Blu-Ray video players and LCD TVs as products that will see growth this holiday season.
Consumer electronics manufactures and retailers have been taking a big hit this year as consumer confidence reaches record lows. The daily declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the mounting job cuts from corporate America has weighed on consumers confidence and their pocketbooks. Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week and Best Buy (BBY) has warned of tough sales for the holiday season.
While Glasgow cautioned there won’t be major growth during the holiday season, he said the transition to the digital TV signal in February and a longer sales cycle should help LCD TV sales.
“Consumers are shopping later and later,” said Glasgow, noting that January could also be a strong month for the industry. Prices are down on almost every product, “it’s not a bad time to buy products,” said Glasgow.
Richard Doherty, an analyst at market research firm Envisoneering said bargains will abound this year, with holiday 2008 potentially being the best year in terms of prices than any other year.
Sony executives noted that in down economies consumers that are spending tend to buy products with well known brands, which bodes well for Sony.
“We see consumer move up the quality in their purchases,” said Jay Vandenbree, president of consumer sales. There’s a “flight to quality,” he said.
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It's time to let you in on a dirty little secret: You may not own the stock you own. That's right, if you invest with a brokerage firm, the shares you bought are almost certainly not held in your name. Technically, they're held in the name of the Wall Street firm you do business with, hence the term "street name."
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Here's the problem: If your stock is technically owned by, say, Merrill Lynch, then Merrill Lynch gets to do things with it that might work against your wishes. Take short selling. Investors who want to sell shares short need to first borrow those shares. The lenders are often the big Wall Street firms that are handing out Street-name shares. So, if you feel that a company you own is a victim of aggressive short selling, chances are your own shares are being used to fuel the shorting.
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