- Sony acquires new shares from FromSoftware owner Kadokawa, becoming the company’s largest shareholder
- Sony now owns 10%, including shares previously acquired in February 2021
- The two companies also plan to discuss new initiatives, such as how to adapt Kadokawa IP into movies, TV shows, co-produce anime, and expand its games
sony Announced that it is now the majority shareholder of FromSoftware owner Kadokawa.
a new one Press release Shared today (December 19) to confirm sony After Sony acquired 12,054,100 new Kadokawa shares for approximately 50 billion yen (approximately US$318.6 million/£252 million), Sony and Kadokawa officially signed a “Strategic Capital and Business Alliance Agreement.”
With the new shares, Sony is now Kadokawa’s largest shareholder, currently holding about 10% of its shares, including the shares Sony acquired in February 2021.
The PlayStation owner said that through this new capital and business alliance, it and Kadokawa “intend to further strengthen our collaboration to maximize the value of both companies’ intellectual property globally” and “promote broader, more Deeper collaborations, such as potential joint investments in content”. areas, jointly discover new creators and jointly promote further media portfolios of both companies’ IPs. “
The two companies also plan to discuss new cooperation initiatives, including how to adapt Kadokawa’s IP into global live-action films and TV series, co-produce animation works, expand Kadokawa animation works through Sony, and further expand the company’s games.
“We are very pleased to have reached this capital and business alliance agreement with Sony,” said Takeshi Natsuno, CEO of Kadokawa. “This alliance is expected to not only further enhance our IP creation capabilities, but also enable Sony’s global expansion.” Increasing our IP media portfolio options with the support of
“We believe that this will greatly contribute to maximizing the value of our intellectual property and increasing corporate value in the medium and long term. We intend to do our best to ensure that our cooperation with Sony achieves great results in the global market.”
reported that Sony is looking to acquire the Japanese publishing company and owner Eldon Ring The developer surfaced last month, but it was only last week that Sony confirmed it had “made a preliminary statement of intent.”
Sony President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki also commented on the new share acquisition, saying: “Through this capital and business alliance, we will become the largest shareholder of Kadokawa, which continues to create various intellectual property rights, including publications and books, such as light novels and manga, as well as games and anime.
“By combining Kadokawa’s extensive IP and IP creation ecosystem with Sony’s strengths, which drive global expansion in a wide range of entertainment areas including anime and games, we plan to work closely to realize Kadokawa’s ‘global media hybrid’ strategy, aimed at maximizing the value of its intellectual property and Sony’s long-term vision, “Creative Entertainment Vision.”