Sony was a leader in TV, looking to extend its platform and protect its current business. Samsung saw digital television as a new opportunity.

Matsushita quickly cut its losses and you could argue that Sony should have done the same. If Sony had stayed a stand-alone electronics company, it wouldn't have made some of its more recent decisions.

Do you really want content when you are an electronics manufacturer?

Together, our companies only have about 17 percent of the pay television market. Just the Comcast-AT&T [business] alone will have something well north of that, ... Just that company, in the cable industry, has about 78 percent, according to the FCC report in January. So we're a very small fish in a very big pond.

It's just like if Sony went out of business. Your Sony television would still function.

The numbers were really bad at the operating level, especially for the core television business.