After weeks of rumors, on December 18, 2024, Sony and KADOKAWA announced the signing of their agreement, which sees Sony acquiring 10% of KADOKAWA shares. The agreement, which will take effect on January 7, 2025, will see Sony become KADOKAWA's largest shareholder, acquiring 12,054,100 new KADOKAWA shares for approximately 50 billion yen.
The two companies have worked together on several projects in the past, and this new “capital and business alliance” will strengthen their cooperation, with the aim of maximizing the value of both companies' IPs in the international market. While live-action films and games will benefit from this, it's clear that the main focus of this new venture will be anime.
Sony is now the majority shareholder of KADOKAWA
This deal will change the landscape of anime
Both Sony and KADOKAWA are already major players in the anime media landscape, and this deal is sure to shake things up. According to the press release, the deal will result in “initiatives to adapt KADOKAWA's intellectual property into live-action films and TV dramas worldwide, co-produce anime works, expand global distribution of anime works of KADOKAWA through the Sony Group, further expand the publication of KADOKAWA anime works.” games and develop human resources to promote and expand virtual production.”
KADOKAWA's library of manga, anime and light novels is incredibly rich, and Sony's resources will help bring these products to the widest possible audience. According to Takeshi Natsuno, CEO of KADOKAWA:
“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 the support of Sony for global expansion, enabling us to deliver our IP to more users around the world We are confident that this will contribute greatly to maximizing the value of our IP and increasing our corporate value in the medium to long term. global market.”
Sony is already a major player in the world of anime. It owns the production studio Aniplex and also Crunchyroll, perhaps the most important anime distribution and streaming platform in the world. According to Hiroki Totoki, President, COO and CFO of Sony Group Corporation:
“Through this capital and business alliance, we will become the largest shareholder in 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 intellectual property creation ecosystem with Sony's strengths, which has fostered the global expansion of a wide range of entertainment, including anime and games, we plan to work closely to realize Sony's 'Global Media Mix' strategy KADOKAWA, aimed at maximizing the value of its intellectual property and Sony's long-term 'Creative Entertainment Vision'.”
Some fans have already called this deal the start of a monopoly, as now the Sony-KADOKAWA The conglomerate will own IPs, production, distribution and even media outlets (Anime News Network is owned by KADOKAWA). It will be interesting to see what real impact this will have on the world of anime, but this deal will certainly be remembered as a historic moment.
Source: Sony Group press release