Summary
- Sony is actively pursuing the acquisition of Kadokawa, the parent company of FromSoftware, the developer of popular games.
- Major players in the media industry are consolidating through acquisitions, with Sony making strategic moves.
- The acquisition could affect both the gaming and anime industries due to the significant presence of Sony and Kadokawa.
A new report confirms this Sony is actively interested in the acquisition of Kadokawa, a major Japanese media conglomerate and the parent company of FromSoftware, developers Elden Ring and Soul titles. Sony is rumored to be “in talks” to acquire the publisher.
The global media industry is entering an age of great consolidation. From Fox Disney's buyout to Microsoft's merger with Activision-Blizzard to the entry of Sony itself Fate developers Bungie in 2022, the biggest players in the media industry are looking for ways to get even bigger. Large companies tend to see acquisitions as strategic steps to improve their prospects in key markets, or even to acquire popular franchises and series, get a piece of their profitability and gain control over its further development.
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This could be the case with Sony's potential purchase of Kadokawa. According to comments published in a report by Japanese website Bunshun Online, Sony Group has confirmed that it has formally “expressed its intentions” to acquire Kadokawa. The comments confirm rumors from an earlier Reuters story about Sony's purchase of Kadokawa published in November 2024.
Sony confirms intention to buy Kadokawa
The Bunshun Online report itself focuses on comments from Kadokawa employees, executives and outside analysts reacting to the rumours. Economic analyst Takahiro Suzuki's comments suggested that a possible deal would benefit Sony more than Kadokawa, as the latter could “lose independence” with the change in management. Suzuki's comments mentioned that a possible Sony-led administration could be “stricter”. This sentiment is in line with what others have been saying about companies covering Sony in the recent past. A former Bungie lawyer praised Sony for imposing the necessary “discipline” on production and management Fate 2 after the acquisition.
Although Sony buying Kadokawa and its game studios could mark a major shift in the game industry, the potential impact of the buyout could be much greater for the anime industry. Both Sony and Kadokawa are among the biggest players in anime and manga production worldwide. Sony owns Crunchyroll and Funimation, two of the largest global anime distributors, while Kadokawa owns countless IPs and large stakes in anime production at almost every level.
Sony and Kadokawa's creation of a potential anime juggernaut could be a seismic shift in the balance of power for the anime scene, but it has to be said that redemption is not a foregone conclusion. Sony has only expressed interest in the acquisition and there will be many steps to go through before everything is settled. The merger of the two titans is still only theoretical.
Sony
- Date of establishment
- May 7, 1946
- Headquarters
- Minato City, Tokyo, Japan
