Sony is officially the largest shareholder of FromSoftware owner Kadokawa
- Sony has acquired new shares in FromSoftware owner Kadokawa, making it the company’s largest shareholder
- Sony now owns 10% of the shares, including the shares previously acquired in February 2021
- The two companies also plan to discuss new initiatives, such as ways to adapt Kadokawa IP into films and TV shows, co-produce anime and expand its games.
Sony has announced that it is now the majority shareholder of FromSoftware owner Kadokawa.
A new one press release was shared today, December 19, to confirm that Sony and Kadokawa have officially signed a “strategic capital and business alliance agreement” after Sony acquired 12,054,100 new Kadokawa shares for approximately 50 billion yen, approximately $318.6 million / £ 252 million.
With the new shares, Sony is currently Kadokawa’s largest shareholder and now owns approximately 10% of the shares, including the shares Sony acquired in February 2021.
Through this new capital and business alliance, the PlayStation owner said that it and Kadokawa “intend to further strengthen our partnership to maximize the IP value of both companies globally” and “facilitate broader and deeper collaboration, such as potential joint investments in the content field, joint discovery of new creators and joint promotion of further media mixes of both companies’ IP.
The two companies also plan to discuss new collaboration initiatives, including ways to adapt Kadokawa’s IP into live-action films and TV dramas worldwide, co-produce anime works, expand Kadokawa’s anime works through Sony and the to further expand the company’s games.
“We are very pleased to enter into this capital and business alliance agreement with Sony,” said Takeshi Natsuno, CEO of Kadokawa. “It is expected that this alliance will not only further strengthen our IP creation capabilities, but also increase our IP media mix options with Sony’s support for global expansion, enabling us to deliver our IP to more users around the world .
“We believe this will go a long way in maximizing the value of our intellectual property and increasing our business value over the medium to long term. We intend to do our utmost to ensure that our collaborative efforts with Sony are yielding great results in the global marketplace.” market.”
Reports that Sony was looking to acquire the Japanese publishing house and owner of the Elden Ring developer surfaced last month, but it wasn’t until last week that Sony confirmed it had “made an initial statement of intent.”
Sony’s President, COO and CFO Hiroki Totoki also commented on the acquisition of new shares, saying: “Through this capital and business alliance, we will become the largest shareholder of Kadokawa, which consistently creates a wide variety of intellectual property, including publications and books such as light novels and comics, as well as games and anime.
“By combining Kadokawa’s extensive IP and IP creation ecosystem with the strengths of Sony, which has fostered the global expansion of a wide range of entertainment including anime and games, we plan to work closely to build Kadokawa’s ‘ Global Media Mix strategy. focused on maximizing the value of its intellectual property, and Sony’s long-term vision, ‘Creative Entertainment Vision.'”