Sony Pictures Television Acquires Majority Stake in Funimation
Deadline Hollywood reports that Sony Pictures Television will pay US$143 million for the controlling stake in Funimation, subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions. The purchase values the distributor at US$150 million and will put it under the umbrella of Sony Pictures Television Networks, which jointly operates the Animax and Kids Station networks with Sony's Japanese businesses.
"Around the world, Sony's networks have been major players in the anime space for nearly two decades, and in more recent years we have rapidly increased our networks' over-the-top and digital offerings to consumers. With the acquisition of Funimation, the combined [intellectual properties] of Animax, Kids Station, and Funimation allows us to deliver the best anime to fans across all screens and platforms," said Andy Kaplan, President of Worldwide Networks at Sony Pictures Television.
Bloomberg first reported in May that Universal and Sony Pictures had been interested in a controlling stake of Funimation. According to the report, Universal decided not to proceed with the talks because it already has a multi-year contract to distribute Funimation's Blu-ray and DVD releases. Meanwhile, a separate Sony unit has been a partner in the ad-free anime streaming service FunimationNow.
Funimation, which records more than US$100 million in annual sales, has been experiencing double-digit growth since 2013 according to the company's chief operating officer in an interview with Bloomberg. This figure is attractive to Hollywood studios that are looking for new content with a loyal fan base and a growing revenue stream in both theatrical releases and home videos.
Bloomberg reports that Funimation has 200 employees spread out among its offices in Texas, New York, and Japan. Its Texas studio produces English dubs for an average of 23 series each week and plans to release 80 shows on the FunimationNow streaming service this year.
Source: Deadline Hollywood, Bloomberg, Polygon
20 of 44 Comments Recent Comments
SONY as a hole is doing OK(year over year is down a lot tho) but the motion pictures part is not doing so great. I do not want to get to much into it but SONY Corps year over year for their normalized income(after tax) is 200million lower. based off march 2016 and march 2017 income statements. There is little question that this is likely due to SONY pictures performance
There are some major concern to be had being bought by a subsidiary that has been doing really bad recently. Lets note that sony pictures is reporting a massive $700 million dollar lose.
Again SONY Corp is not doing that bad and has recovered a lot over the last 3 years largely due to the PS4 but it can not be understand how badly the motion picture part of the company is doing.
I myself am worried about funimation being shut down at some point for cost cutting.
Aug 10, 2017 4:14 PM by dejet
Aug 4, 2017 3:45 PM by lkevsan
It could work out fine. But, it could also be a total disaster. Have to hope for the best, but can't blame anyone for pessimism.
Aug 3, 2017 6:30 PM by FlarisKnight
There's an interesting possible future development here with Sony having access to both Animax and Funimation. Animax has a large presence on television networks across Asia, and they have been known to produce their own dubs for Asia's English-speaking markets. Given that Funimation's expertise is in English dub production, it's possible that English Animax channels will see more dubs produced by Funimation.
im from colombia.
nobody in la know about crackle its a service who nobody use.
crackle is a bad service they have few old series and movies. also anime is almost nonexistent
Aug 2, 2017 9:08 PM by valar_melkor
There's an interesting possible future development here with Sony having access to both Animax and Funimation. Animax has a large presence on television networks across Asia, and they have been known to produce their own dubs for Asia's English-speaking markets. Given that Funimation's expertise is in English dub production, it's possible that English Animax channels will see more dubs produced by Funimation.
I'm from India here Animax recently got shutdown and they moved Anime content on streaming on Sony Liv app
Aug 1, 2017 10:00 PM by Hikki77
Aug 1, 2017 8:24 PM by JizzyHitler
Aug 1, 2017 2:42 PM by alpha_shadow
Hey guys,
Jay here from Funimation HQ.
This is by far the most positive and optimistic conversation I've seen thus far in the dark realm known as the internet. We are stoked to join the Sony Pictures Television Networks family. With their reach and Funimation's understanding of anime, I see expansion of the anime network, increased viewership and improved efficiency with the combined goal of creating anime experiences fans love and the ability to deliver anime globally across all screens and platforms.
Have a great Tuesday everyone. For the lovers on here - It's National Girlfriend Day... you're welcome ;)
Jay Hairston | Funimation Community Manager | Twitter: @JayHairston
Please kill region blocking. Europe has a lot of money, you know.
Aug 1, 2017 1:16 PM by TrashDax
Hey guys,
Jay here from Funimation HQ.
This is by far the most positive and optimistic conversation I've seen thus far in the dark realm known as the internet. We are stoked to join the Sony Pictures Television Networks family. With their reach and Funimation's understanding of anime, I see expansion of the anime network, increased viewership and improved efficiency with the combined goal of creating anime experiences fans love and the ability to deliver anime globally across all screens and platforms.
Have a great Tuesday everyone. For the lovers on here - It's National Girlfriend Day... you're welcome ;)
Jay Hairston | Funimation Community Manager | Twitter: @JayHairston
I'm happy for you guys. But I am from Europe, so I can't even access your website.
I hope it'll become global so that I can watch and buy the dvd/blu-rays ;_; But that's just a dream right now..
Aug 1, 2017 1:13 PM by xFaithy
FTFY.
It's not like we have social life or anything :^)
Aug 1, 2017 11:33 AM by Cirno9
Jay here from Funimation HQ.
This is by far the most positive and optimistic conversation I've seen thus far in the dark realm known as the internet. We are stoked to join the Sony Pictures Television Networks family. With their reach and Funimation's understanding of anime, I see expansion of the anime network, increased viewership and improved efficiency with the combined goal of creating anime experiences fans love and the ability to deliver anime globally across all screens and platforms.
Have a great Tuesday everyone. For the lovers on here - It's National Girlfriend Day... you're welcome ;)
Jay Hairston | Funimation Community Manager | Twitter: @JayHairston
Aug 1, 2017 10:34 AM by JayHairston
Aug 1, 2017 10:04 AM by removed-user
Lots of companies now want to eat this cake (Anime industry) such as Nexflix, Amazon and now is Sony. I think the investors want to expolit this aspect of entertainment. It's good for Anime industry.
I worry because bigger companies that buy smaller companies will often kill the creativity that fans and customers liked about the smaller companies even if they don't actually kill the companies by firing everyone.
But my main worry is I heard other companies in other industries buy controlling shares of stock in their competitors just so they can close them down to stop them from competing.
Aug 1, 2017 9:58 AM by Zankokuhime
Lots of companies now want to eat this cake (Anime industry) such as Nexflix, Amazon and now is Sony. I think the investors want to expolit this aspect of entertainment. It's good for Anime industry.
I worry because bigger companies that buy smaller companies will often kill the creativity that fans and customers liked about the smaller companies even if they don't actually kill the companies by firing everyone.
But my main worry is I heard other companies in other industries buy controlling shares of stock in their competitors just so they can close them down to stop them from competing.
Aug 1, 2017 9:36 AM by realsmart987
Aniplexs' owners? Expect to pay import tier prices for licensed BDs.
Aug 1, 2017 4:59 AM by jc9622
Aug 1, 2017 1:19 AM by Zankokuhime
well, at least we might not have to put up with funimation's weird left-wing/feminist insert dialogue where it doesn't belong (hopefully)
Left-wing bias and radical feminism aren't the same. Please avoid being a complete idiot after starting with an idea that is somewhat intelligent, that being the idea that Funimation is unprofessional in the way it may or may not post things that piss you (and other viewers?) off.
But yay, I just wanted any kind of movement in the industry. Things were getting boring.
any side is moronic, especially the left wing. radical feminism is just a part of it. so whichever you decide to choose, you're still an idiot. insults beget insults, as a mention. for the future, don't get so triggered by what others say. it just makes you look obsessive over your views and beliefs.
Jul 31, 2017 10:36 PM by MZXJ
Jul 31, 2017 10:12 PM by ya_hallo
Funimation answered some questions people might have.
https://www.funimation.com/blog/2017/08/01/funimation-agrees-acquired-sony-pictures-television-networks/
lol to summarize the answers "we will not change maybe"
I sure hope this doesnt happen to Crunchyroll.
why? arent you glad that japan and its anime industry will directly profit more from this kind of thing?
Jul 31, 2017 9:28 PM by deg
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