Sony’s Funimation Acquiring Crunchyroll From AT&T for $1.175 Billion
After calling WarnerMedia’s Otter Media home for nearly five years, popular anime platform Crunchyroll is moving as AT&T has sold it off to Funimation Global Group, LLC, a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan)’s subsidiary, Aniplex Inc., for $1.175 billion.
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Exciting news to share today! https://t.co/pY3c43MWRX
— Funimation (@FUNimation) December 9, 2020
We are excited to join our peers at Sony and Funimation.
There are many questions we can’t answer yet, but we’re excited by the prospect of this combination. https://t.co/R6ACXYHRHL
— Crunchyroll (@Crunchyroll) December 9, 2020
“The Crunchyroll team has done an extraordinary job of not only growing the Crunchyroll brand but also building a passionate community of anime fans,” Tony Goncalves, Chief Revenue Officer of WarnerMedia, said in a statement. “Crunchyroll’s success is a direct result of the company’s culture and commitment to their fans. By combining with Funimation, they will continue to nurture a global community and bring more anime to more people. I’m incredibly proud of the Crunchyroll team and what they have been able to accomplish in the digital media space in such a short period of time. They’ve created an end-to-end global ecosystem for this incredible art form.”
Crunchyroll is a premier anime direct-to-consumer service within AT&T’s WarnerMedia segment with more than 3 million SVOD subscribers and growing. It serves 90 million registered users across more than 200 countries and territories offering AVOD, mobile games, manga, events merchandise and distribution. The combination of Crunchyroll and Funimation provides the opportunity to broaden distribution for their content partners and expand fan-centric offerings for consumers.
“We are excited to embark on this new journey,” Joanne Waage, General Manager of Crunchyroll, said in a statement. “Crunchyroll has built a world-class brand with a passionate fan-base of over 3M subscribers, 50M social followers and 90M registered users. These amazing fans have helped to propel anime into a global phenomenon. Combining the strength of the Crunchyroll brand and the expertise of our global team with Funimation is an exciting prospect and a win for the incredible art form of anime.”
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“We are proud to bring Crunchyroll into the Sony family,” Tony Vinciquerra, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, said in a statement. “Through Funimation and our terrific partners at Aniplex and Sony Music Entertainment Japan, we have a deep understanding of this global artform and are well-positioned to deliver outstanding content to audiences around the world. Together with Crunchyroll, we will create the best possible experience for fans and greater opportunity for creators, producers and publishers in Japan and elsewhere. Funimation has been doing this for over 25 years and we look forward to continuing to leverage the power of creativity and technology to succeed in this rapidly growing segment of entertainment.”