What is the impact on cash from Sony selling its old Tokyo headquarters?

In March 2014, Sony signed a deal to sell its old Tokyo headquarters and a nearby building for $156 million. This building served as Sony’s headquarters from 1990 to 2007 and is thought of as the birthplace of the company, where Sony founders worked on the Walkman and Trinitron TV.

This building sale follows the sale of Sony’s New York and Osaka buildings in 2013.

Sony has said that it expects a loss of $1.1 billion for its fiscal year 2014.

Questions

1. Would the sale of the Tokyo buildings be a source of cash or a use of cash for Sony?
2. In which section of Sony’s statement of cash flows for 2014 would the proceeds from the sale of the Tokyo buildings be reported (operating, investing, or financing)?
3. In which section of Sony’s statement of cash flows for 2014 would the operating loss be reported (operating, investing, or financing)?
4. Do you think the sale of Sony buildings in 2013 and 2014 is related to its projected operating loss?  Why or why not?

Instructor Resources

These resources are provided to give the instructor flexibility for use of Accounting in the Headlines articles in the classroom. The blog posting itself can be assigned via a link to this site OR by distributing the student handout below.  Alternatively, the PowerPoint file below contains a bullet point overview of the article and the discussion questions.  The YouTube video link below is a narration of the blog post article (no discussion questions are included in the YouTube video; those can be assigned separately.)

• Student handout (pdf) (word) (contains entire blog posting + discussion questions)
• PowerPoint file (brief article overview + discussion questions)
• YouTube video (narrated article in shareable YouTube link)

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