Earlier today, Sony and Kadokawa announced an agreement that will make Sony Kadokawa’s largest shareholder, putting to rest the rumors of an acquisition.
By January 7, 2025. Sony will purchase 12,054,100 Kadokawa shares for 50 billion yen (approximately $319 million). Sony already owns some shares in Kadokawa, which it got back in February of 2021.
Sony’s interest in Kadokawa will grow to about 10% of its shares, making it the largest shareholder of the media giant.
Sony and Kadokawa have plans to further strengthen their collaboration, potentially working together in making content, discovering creators, and promoting media mixes of IPs from both companies.
For the moment, the two media giants are mulling the following:
- Adapt Kadokawa’s IP into live-action media
- Work together on anime
- Expand Kadokawa’s existing anime reach globally
- Expand Kadokawa’s video game publishing
- Provide resources to promote virtual production
This news puts to rest the idea that a full acquisition of Kadokawa by Sony was coming, which many feared would further monopolize the anime industry and more. In 2021, Sony bought Crunchyroll, the largest anime streaming service. Sony also owns Aniplex, which produces and distributes anime.
Both Sony and Kadokawa had thoughts to share about the news. Takeshi Natsuno, Chief Executive Officer of Kadokawa, said:
“We are very pleased to conclude this capital and business alliance agreement with Sony. 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. We are confident that this will greatly contribute to maximizing the value of our IP and increasing our corporate value in the mid- to long-term. We intend to do our utmost to ensure that our collaborative efforts with Sony produce great results in the global market.”
Hiroki Totoki, the President, COO, and CFO of Sony, said:
“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. By combining Kadokawa’s extensive IP and IP creation ecosystem with the strengths of Sony, which has promoted the global expansion of a wide range of entertainment, including anime and games, we plan to work closely together to realize Kadokawa’s ‘Global Media Mix’ strategy, aimed at maximizing the value of its IP, and Sony’s long-term vision, ‘Creative Entertainment Vision.'”
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