Sony buys Dutch production company

[alfonzos]

...for $223 million. Gee, the shows I developed would have been much cheaper than that and the money would stayed in the U.S. to bolster the economy.

[davemackey]

[quote name=\'alfonzos\' post=\'187556\' date=\'Jun 5 2008, 05:41 PM\']
...for $223 million. Gee, the shows I developed would have been much cheaper than that and the money would stayed in the U.S. to bolster the economy.
[/quote]
What makes this story significant is that Sony now owns "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", formerly a production of 2 Way Traffic, which itself acquired original show producer Celador two years ago. And Michael Davies, now developing stuff for Sony, now has a tangible connection to Millionaire once more.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'davemackey\' post=\'187588\' date=\'Jun 6 2008, 06:07 AM\']
[quote name=\'alfonzos\' post=\'187556\' date=\'Jun 5 2008, 05:41 PM\']
...for $223 million. Gee, the shows I developed would have been much cheaper than that and the money would stayed in the U.S. to bolster the economy.
[/quote]
What makes this story significant is that Sony now owns "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", formerly a production of 2 Way Traffic, which itself acquired original show producer Celador two years ago. And Michael Davies, now developing stuff for Sony, now has a tangible connection to Millionaire once more.
[/quote]

And that's exactly why Sony bought the company.  "That's the Question" and a bunch of call-in-and-lose formats would not garner $223M (among other format holdings) otherwise.

[Jimmy Owen]

According to the story, Sony does not have a cable channel.  When did they divest themselves of their portion of GSN?

[goongas]

Michael Davies is still the executive producer of Millionaire, so he has more than just a "tangible connection" to the show.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'Jimmy Owen\' post=\'187596\' date=\'Jun 6 2008, 11:37 AM\']
According to the story, Sony does not have a cable channel.  When did they divest themselves of their portion of GSN?
[/quote]

They haven't.  The HR story on the GSN board on "TDG/TNG" states that they still own half of GSN.  If Meg James is right, it's only because they don't have *majority* ownership of a cable network.