Sony to acquire majority stake in FUNimation

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Paul

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Last night it was confirmed that Sony Pictures Television Networks will buy the majority stake (reportedly a 95% stake at $143 million) of US anime distributor FUNimation Entertainment. This comes after reports surfaced in May that Universal & Sony were set to rival each other in take-over bids for FUNimation due to the company’s “strong DVD & Blu-ray sales”.

Given FUNimation’s continued involvement in the UK anime industry over the years, what impact this will have in the UK is yet to be seen, but any change such as this is sure to be felt at some point.

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don't really like the bigger US companies acquiring these streaming/distributors they often forget about other countries. hopefully we don't get anime strike and remember the model Funi has worked hard to create
 
Captaaainuniverse said:
don't really like the bigger US companies acquiring these streaming/distributors they often forget about other countries. hopefully we don't get anime strike and remember the model Funi has worked hard to create
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This is the same Sony that has no interest releaseing anime titles that they have the rights to like steamboy.
 
Funimation have said nothing will change, but my guess is that their deal with Universal will probably be the first major change we'll see. I think Sony has proved with their handling of Criterion that they can do distributing for other people well. I'd be more concerned about Funimation dropping the ball on that end.
 
Or indeed Universal, since they were one of the parties rumoured to be interested in buying the majority stake of FUNimation.

I read on ANN earlier that this won't effect FUNi's operations in the UK, but the proof will be whatever happens next over here once the known batch of releases are finished up.
 
An interesting read. Disappointing that it's suggesting yet more dilution of the anime streaming industry, and specifically another blow to Crunchyroll.
 
It probably won’t mean that some series like dbs will get pulled from CR on the US side, but whenever questions come up on who owns rights to what, the services often lose the rights to show it in the UK. If this means i wont be able to see the end of the tournament of power, i will smash my playstation
 
anime_andrew said:
Doesn't really impact us at all - or Manga UK / Animatsu or MVM tbh :).

AP
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Andrew i get the feeling you're too optimistic. Just picking a fave out of a hat but it won’t affect KLK AL already is selling that. What it concerns is future titles. Would you be able to get future Funi titles and how soon? I'm not saying you'll never get them just that you'll lose some money to how long it takes for Funi to be sorted out
 
Well, Funimation are selling there titles to uk and making sales, I can't see Sony changing that. There keeping Gen Fukunaga, as CEO and there keeping the same staff within the company.
I'm not seeing a downside yet. Maybe you guys see something I don't?
 
Denny Fisher said:
Well, Funimation are selling there titles to uk and making sales, I can't see Sony changing that. There keeping Gen Fukunaga, as CEO and there keeping the same staff within the company.
I'm not seeing a downside yet. Maybe you guys see something I don't?
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Future titles. I'm thinking of two ways it could go. Sony takes titles off Funi and makes it a smaller company, with it's lack of comunication with it's departments anything sony does with those is a mystery, or it could end up better when Funi ends up in a department and becones the de-facto licensor for any anime sony gets. Funi doesn't have a massive presence here other then sales and depends on groups like AL and MANGA. Sony is much bigger here and can depend on itself
 
Back in 2007, Navarre bought Funimation, who at that time were distributing through MVM. Navarre wanted to bring everything in-house, so transferred distribution to another Navarre subsidiary, Revelation Films. They couldn't really handle it, so for two years we had a practical dearth of Funi titles in the U.K. before Funi switched to Manga. Sony isn't Revelation, but it would be short sighted not to expect some change down the line, if only in who's distributing the discs.
 
For what it's worth, SPHE UK seem to be doing a good job with Criterion in the UK, so I wouldn't panic about Sony taking over home media distribution.
 
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