Sony has announced the formation of a strategic alliance with Kadokawa, taking over 10% of the company’s shares. As a result, Sony will become the company’s largest shareholder. The transaction, scheduled for January 7, will cost Sony approximately $320 million.
What about the acquisition?
According to the statement, Sony Group does not intend to acquire any more shares after this move, which indicates that the Japanese company has given up on acquiring the conglomerate. At least for now.
The strategic alliance will also strengthen the two companies’ IPs. The two companies will sit down in the future to discuss the production of live-action adaptations of prominent IPs, co-produce anime, and expand the distribution of Kadokawa anime globally. In games, Sony is to become a publisher for some of Kadokawa’s games. FromSoftware’s next original IP could become a Sony second party game, for example.
Hiroki Totoki, Sony President and CFO, 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.’”
The move also helps protect Kadokawa from acquisitions by other companies. The company attempting a hostile takeover will need Sony to agree to sell its shares, which makes the process more difficult (and expensive).
What do you think of Sony forming a business alliance with Kadokawa? Let us know in the comments and join the discussion on our forum.
It cost too much to acquire and would hurt Sony as is
What does this mean product wise moving forward? Will their anime titles be exclusive to Crunchyroll licensing moving forward? Will games be PlayStation exclusive? Can studios like Acquire, Spike Chunsoft, and From Software work with other publishers like Bandai Namco? This also makes me wonder about Tencent I’m surprised they didn’t move in on this given they own a fair share of Kadokawa so are they pursuing another company because Ubisoft doesn’t make sense to acquire.
So Sony will have a lock on them? Are we getting a Redo Of Healer game? Goblin Slayer AAA game? Can From Software finally make Otogi 3, work with Hideyuki Kikuchi, adapt Guin Saga, and work with Yoshiki Tanaka too. Acquire finally make a new Shinobido or Tenchu. Bluepoint remake Itogi.