The largest single shareholder in Kadokawa is now Sony Group which they confirmed. The deal is valued at around 50 billion yen or $320 million. This agreement has brought Sony a 10% holding in the company. Both companies have made an agreement “strategic capital and business alliance” enabling them to collaborate for equal interest.
There were talks of a full takeover of Kadokawa but it seems like that has been paused. Sony is interested in using the opportunities to use video games and anime to the full extent. The full takeover would cost 10 times more than the current amount.
The COO and CFO of Sony Hiroki Totoki had this to say about the deal “Through this capital and business alliance, we will become the largest shareholder of Kadokawa, which consistently creates a wide variety of IP, including publications and books, such as light novels and comics, as well as games and anime.” He further added that the two companies will work separately but will have the same aspirations. The CEO of Kadokawa Takeshi Natsuno stated “This alliance is expected to not only further strengthen our IP creation capabilities, but also increase our IP media mix options with Sony’s support for global expansion, allowing us to deliver our IP to more users around the world.”
Not enough details were provided regarding the deal. There was however mention of adapting different IPs of Kadokawa into live-action series, anime, and movies by utilizing Sony’s portfolio. There is a scope for growth of both Kadokawa and Sony through their shared projects. Kadokawa is the publisher of some major anime and manga while Sony owns both Funimation and Crunchyroll. Sony also holds a minority stake in FromSoftware. So there are a lot of similarities between the two.
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