Dan Loeb is eating crow.
The hedge-fund billionaire, who has been pressing Sony to spin off its entertainment unit, apologized for attacking the company’s recent box-office bombs and even tried to make nice with George Clooney, who last week called Loeb a “carpetbagger.”
In an interview with Variety, Loeb appeared to back off his demands for a spin-off after underestimating both Japanese and Hollywood culture. He also said he and Clooney have a “common goal” for “intelligent investment in creative content.”
Just days before Sony rejected Loeb’s spin-off proposal, Clooney dismissed Loeb as someone “who knows nothing about our business, and is looking to take scalps at Sony because two movies in a row underperformed.”
That was a reference to a recent letter Loeb sent to his investors attacking Sony flops “White House Down” and “After Earth.”
Loeb also backed away from those comments, saying, “We’re not really focused on individual movies or their slate.”
“I’m confident Dan’s olive-branch response to Clooney was more about avoiding being blackballed from Hollywood parties than anything more substantive,” said Robert Chapman of Chapman Capital, who said he shorted Sony in June because he suspected the company would reject Loeb’s proposal.
Hedge-fund insiders said they now expect Loeb to make a “graceful exit” out of Sony over the next year, selling down his 4 percent stake.
Sony shares lost another 3 percent yesterday, closing at $20.13
mcelarier@nypost.com