Sony on slide as split plan rejected

Shares in Sony dropped almost 5 per cent yesterday after the electronics giant rejected a proposal from the activist investor Daniel Loeb to partially spin off its entertainment business.

"The Sony board of directors has unanimously concluded that continuing to own 100 per cent of our entertainment business is the best path forward," Kazuo Hirai, the chief executive, wrote to Mr Loeb.

The billionaire's Third Point hedge fund has waged a three-month campaign to convince Sony to sell as much as one-fifth of its money-making entertainment arm – which is involved in movies, TV and music – to free up cash to revive the electronics business

The move angered the actor George Clooney, who called Mr Loeb a "hedge fund guy who describes himself as an activist but who knows nothing about our business".