VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Months after Sony Corp bought So-net, the broadband provider's chief chided CEO Kazuo Hirai for having his "priorities in the wrong order".

Japanese cinemas rang up a healthy rise in ticket sales in 2014 as blockbuster animation film "Frozen" eclipsed an otherwise lackluster show by Hollywood, industry data showed on Tuesday.

"The Interview," the Sony Pictures comedy believed to have triggered a cyber attack on the studio, has racked up over $40 million in sales from 5.8 million digital downloads, the studio said on Tuesday.

Over the past seven weeks, Sony Pictures' chief executive has dealt with the fallout from a cyberattack he likens to having your house robbed and burned to the ground.

Sony Pictures (6758.T) said "The Interview" has earned more than $15 million in online sales and another $2.8 million in theaters, an impressive return made possible by the publicity surrounding the cyberattack blamed on North Korea.

North Korea called U.S. President Barack Obama a "monkey" and blamed Washington on Saturday for Internet outages it has experienced during a confrontation with the United States over the hacking of the film studio Sony Pictures.

"The Interview," the Sony Pictures film about a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, opened in more than 300 movie theaters across the United States on Christmas Day, drawing many sell-out audiences and statements by patrons that they were championing freedom of expression.

Japan, fearing it could be a soft target for possible North Korean cyberattacks in the escalating row over the Sony Pictures hack, has begun working to ensure basic infrastructure is safe and to formulate its diplomatic response, officials said.

Google Inc's decision to screen Sony Pictures' film "The Interview" may help legitimize its YouTube platform as a serious rival to paid video streaming services, Netflix and Amazon.com Inc.

Sony Pictures will allow "The Interview" to play in more than 200 U.S. theaters as of Christmas Day, reversing its decision to pull the film, after coming under criticism from President Barack Obama and others for caving into pressure from North Korea.

North Korea, at the center of a confrontation with the United States over the hacking of Sony Pictures, experienced a complete Internet outage for hours before links were restored on Tuesday, a U.S. company that monitors Internet infrastructure said.

Sony Pictures Entertainment advised its current and former employees to be on the alert for fraudsters looking to use their stolen data, which included detailed personal information.

Early villains have emerged in the next James Bond film "SPECTRE": hackers who stole a version of the screenplay as part of a devastating cyberattack on Sony Pictures.

Sony Pictures Entertainment executives announced that it would cut down the number of films it produces per year and will focus instead on higher-margin television production and operating TV channels.

Sony Entertainment sought the advice of consultancy firm Bain & Company to help identify more than USD100 million in cost cuts. The Japanese conglomerate reportedly suffered a USD181 million operating loss in the second quarter.