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AT&T (T) Inks Deal to Sell Crunchyroll to Sony for Nearly $1.2B
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AT&T Inc. (T - Free Report) has inked a deal to sell its Crunchyroll anime business to Sony’s Funimation Global Group for $1.175 billion in cash. Owned by AT&T, WarnerMedia was looking to divest the unit for quite some time as the parent company is seeking to trim its debt load through asset monetization. As of Sep 30, 2020, AT&T had $152,980 million in long-term debt. The move is part of the telecom behemoth’s plan to realign its business focus.
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in San Francisco, Crunchyroll is part of WarnerMedia’s Otter Media division that offers a direct-to-customer service. It caters to more than 3 million users for its subscription video-on-demand content. About 90 million registered users across more than 200 countries access its advertising-based video on demand, manga content, mobile games and events merchandise.
Funimation is a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment (a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony) and Sony Music Entertainment Japan’s subsidiary, Aniplex. The buyout will allow Sony to expand its content library by including Japanese anime movies and TV shows. Meanwhile, AT&T remains focused on its HBO Max video service in the United States.
Funimation’s streaming services offer a growing list of 700 anime series and more than 13,000 hours of content available on 15 platforms in 49 countries. For more than 25 years, the company has been delivering anime to fans. It aims to continue leveraging the power of creativity and technology to thrive in this rapidly growing segment of entertainment.
The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is not expected to have a significant impact on Sony’s forecast for its consolidated results for the fiscal year ending Mar 31, 2021. Post-closing, Crunchyroll’s 500 employees will join the Sony family.
The combination of Crunchyroll and Funimation is expected to provide the opportunity to broaden distribution for the content partners and expand fan-focused offerings. It is to be seen how the deal pans out.
AT&T’s shares have lost 17.6% in the past year against 4.3% growth of the industry.
In the same time frame, Sony’s shares have gained 41.5% compared with 35% growth of the industry.
Both AT&T and Sony currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Plantronics delivered a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 568.2%, on average.
NIC delivered a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 27.5%, on average. The company’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the last four quarters.
Just Released: Zacks’ 7 Best Stocks for Today
Experts extracted 7 stocks from the list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys that has beaten the market more than 2X over with a stunning average gain of +24.4% per year.
These 7 were selected because of their superior potential for immediate breakout.
Image: Bigstock
AT&T (T) Inks Deal to Sell Crunchyroll to Sony for Nearly $1.2B
AT&T Inc. (T - Free Report) has inked a deal to sell its Crunchyroll anime business to Sony’s Funimation Global Group for $1.175 billion in cash. Owned by AT&T, WarnerMedia was looking to divest the unit for quite some time as the parent company is seeking to trim its debt load through asset monetization. As of Sep 30, 2020, AT&T had $152,980 million in long-term debt. The move is part of the telecom behemoth’s plan to realign its business focus.
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in San Francisco, Crunchyroll is part of WarnerMedia’s Otter Media division that offers a direct-to-customer service. It caters to more than 3 million users for its subscription video-on-demand content. About 90 million registered users across more than 200 countries access its advertising-based video on demand, manga content, mobile games and events merchandise.
Funimation is a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment (a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony) and Sony Music Entertainment Japan’s subsidiary, Aniplex. The buyout will allow Sony to expand its content library by including Japanese anime movies and TV shows. Meanwhile, AT&T remains focused on its HBO Max video service in the United States.
Funimation’s streaming services offer a growing list of 700 anime series and more than 13,000 hours of content available on 15 platforms in 49 countries. For more than 25 years, the company has been delivering anime to fans. It aims to continue leveraging the power of creativity and technology to thrive in this rapidly growing segment of entertainment.
The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is not expected to have a significant impact on Sony’s forecast for its consolidated results for the fiscal year ending Mar 31, 2021. Post-closing, Crunchyroll’s 500 employees will join the Sony family.
The combination of Crunchyroll and Funimation is expected to provide the opportunity to broaden distribution for the content partners and expand fan-focused offerings. It is to be seen how the deal pans out.
AT&T’s shares have lost 17.6% in the past year against 4.3% growth of the industry.
In the same time frame, Sony’s shares have gained 41.5% compared with 35% growth of the industry.
Both AT&T and Sony currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
A couple of better-ranked stocks in the broader sector are Plantronics and NIC , both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Plantronics delivered a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 568.2%, on average.
NIC delivered a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 27.5%, on average. The company’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the last four quarters.
Just Released: Zacks’ 7 Best Stocks for Today
Experts extracted 7 stocks from the list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys that has beaten the market more than 2X over with a stunning average gain of +24.4% per year.
These 7 were selected because of their superior potential for immediate breakout.
See these time-sensitive tickers now >>