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SONY Completes Crunchyroll Buyout, Boosts Anime Business
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Sony Group Corporation (SONY - Free Report) recently announced that it has completed the acquisition of AT&T Inc.’s (T - Free Report) Crunchyroll anime business to augment its anime business and enrich its fan-centric offerings. The deal was consummated through Funimation Global Group, LLC., a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment (a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony) and Sony Music Entertainment Japan’s subsidiary, Aniplex.
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 5 million users for its subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) content. About 120 million registered users across more than 200 countries access its advertising-based video on demand, manga content, mobile games and events merchandise.
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 buyout will allow Sony to expand its content library by including Japanese anime movies and TV shows. It will also enable Funimation to broaden its distribution platform for their content partners and better connect with the creators and fans, who represent the core of the anime community. This will further offer the company an opportunity to deliver the anime experience across any platform that the end users select, from theatres, events, home entertainment, games, streaming and linear TV for a wholesome entertainment experience.
The transaction facilitates AT&T to monetize assets in order to trim its huge debt load and focus on core business activities. The carrier has also inked a definitive agreement with Discovery, Inc. to spin off its media assets and merge them with the complementary assets of the latter to form a standalone global entertainment company amid continuous cord-cutting in U.S. households. The cash resources are likely to be utilized to augment its network infrastructure throughout the country as it remains focused on business transformation efforts to augment operational efficiency and enable optimum utilization of resources to enhance value.
Sony has been strengthening its business segments through accretive acquisitions and joint ventures. A couple of months back, Sony augmented its PlayStation gaming software lineup with the acquisition of game development studio Housemarque for an undisclosed amount. The buyout is likely to offer the company the requisite wherewithal to better compete with rivals like Microsoft Corporation (MSFT - Free Report) , which has strengthened its arsenal with more than a dozen video game studio purchases over the past few years.
Leveraging the rich talent pool of Housemarque and its zest for gameplay-centric approaches while experimenting with newer methods of narrative delivery to push the boundaries of the gaming arena, Sony aims to extend its leading market share in gaming software. The deal also strengthens its long-standing business relationship with the game developer. The company further aims to capitalize on its immense popularity to create more ambitious projects in the future. Post acquisition, Housemarque will continue to be run by its management team with inputs from PlayStation Studios personnel. With the buyout, Sony currently has about 13 firms under its PlayStation Studios banner.
The stock has gained 29.4% over the past year compared with the industry’s rise of 28.7%, driven by healthy revenues on the back of a flexible business model and solid market response for the PS5 gaming console.
Image: Bigstock
SONY Completes Crunchyroll Buyout, Boosts Anime Business
Sony Group Corporation (SONY - Free Report) recently announced that it has completed the acquisition of AT&T Inc.’s (T - Free Report) Crunchyroll anime business to augment its anime business and enrich its fan-centric offerings. The deal was consummated through Funimation Global Group, LLC., a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment (a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony) and Sony Music Entertainment Japan’s subsidiary, Aniplex.
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 5 million users for its subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) content. About 120 million registered users across more than 200 countries access its advertising-based video on demand, manga content, mobile games and events merchandise.
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 buyout will allow Sony to expand its content library by including Japanese anime movies and TV shows. It will also enable Funimation to broaden its distribution platform for their content partners and better connect with the creators and fans, who represent the core of the anime community. This will further offer the company an opportunity to deliver the anime experience across any platform that the end users select, from theatres, events, home entertainment, games, streaming and linear TV for a wholesome entertainment experience.
The transaction facilitates AT&T to monetize assets in order to trim its huge debt load and focus on core business activities. The carrier has also inked a definitive agreement with Discovery, Inc. to spin off its media assets and merge them with the complementary assets of the latter to form a standalone global entertainment company amid continuous cord-cutting in U.S. households. The cash resources are likely to be utilized to augment its network infrastructure throughout the country as it remains focused on business transformation efforts to augment operational efficiency and enable optimum utilization of resources to enhance value.
Sony has been strengthening its business segments through accretive acquisitions and joint ventures. A couple of months back, Sony augmented its PlayStation gaming software lineup with the acquisition of game development studio Housemarque for an undisclosed amount. The buyout is likely to offer the company the requisite wherewithal to better compete with rivals like Microsoft Corporation (MSFT - Free Report) , which has strengthened its arsenal with more than a dozen video game studio purchases over the past few years.
Leveraging the rich talent pool of Housemarque and its zest for gameplay-centric approaches while experimenting with newer methods of narrative delivery to push the boundaries of the gaming arena, Sony aims to extend its leading market share in gaming software. The deal also strengthens its long-standing business relationship with the game developer. The company further aims to capitalize on its immense popularity to create more ambitious projects in the future. Post acquisition, Housemarque will continue to be run by its management team with inputs from PlayStation Studios personnel. With the buyout, Sony currently has about 13 firms under its PlayStation Studios banner.
The stock has gained 29.4% over the past year compared with the industry’s rise of 28.7%, driven by healthy revenues on the back of a flexible business model and solid market response for the PS5 gaming console.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
We remain impressed with the inherent growth potential of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.