Columbia Pictures

"I was aware that Sony was struggling with a programming investment. So I asked a pointed question: “How do you like your Columbia investment these days?” Less than two years earlier, in 1989, Sony Corp. had plunked down $3.4 billion to buy Columbia Pictures Entertainment, and the studio had subsequently spent billions to bring on new leadership and settle lawsuits, then taken painful write-downs on big box office flops. Dick gasped at the question, unaware of my intent. Morita, a World War II vet from the Japanese Navy, was very western, but he had the calm reserve of the East, and he smiled a confident smile. Sony had weathered many storms, and it had learned lessons the hard way: Sony had led the world with the superior Betamax standard, only to lose the videocassette war to the VHS format, which was cheaper and ran longer and won wider distribution with Hollywood studios. In admirably polite style, Morita explained the strategy behind the Columbia investment. Sony wanted to supply content, particularly movies, to its hardware customers, and though Columbia faced some headwinds, patient management there would see increasing returns. Thirty years later, Columbia Pictures remains part of Sony’s entertainment group, one of the Big Five in Hollywood. I liked him instantly. My comment, while brusque, got us past the small talk and endless formalities. Within minutes we were deep in conversation about market demand, productivity, and production of HDTV sets and digital video recorders."

"For the last few years, Fox had been run by Alan Hirschfield, a finance man who’d previously run Columbia Pictures. Davis was very direct with me. He wanted me to take over Fox; he’d give me 25 percent of the studio and anything else I needed. A desperate offer from a desperate man to another quietly desperate man. What I didn’t know then was that there was a darker reason for his extremely generous offer. I told him disingenuously that I might be interested and we ought to have our mutual lawyers get into the details. *Might be interested? Please.*"