The technology website The information reported this Wednesday that the company AT & T. offered to sell the platform Crunchyroll to the multinational company Sony for $ 1,500 million. According to the report, Sony had previously intended to acquire the popular anime streaming site, but AT&T had overvalued the platform and Sony had to pull its offer off the table.
With this new update, it is known that AT&T now intends to offer the platform at a much lower price than before, as assets need to be sold to reduce a $ 151,000 million debt that the company has amassed in the last years.
The website mentions that Warner Medida, an AT&T subsidiary, was considering selling Crunchyroll in May. However, with the arrival of a new CEO at the company, those negotiations were put on hold to better examine the options of the deal.
Sony Pictures, in partnership with Aniplex, has consolidated three companies for the acquisition and distribution of anime content:
- Funimation: Based in the USA, some parts of Europe, Mexico and Brazil.
- Wakanim: Based in France.
- Madman Anime Group: Headquarters in Autralia.
On the other hand, on July 28th, Crunchyroll passed the 3 million subscriber and 70 million registered user mark. In 2017 the platform reached its first million subscribers and passed the 2 million mark in 2018.
Crunchyroll It started out as an illegal anime distributor and partnered with some companies in 2006 to legalize the platform and get its first titles with $ 4 million in funding.
In 2013, the Chernin Group acquired the majority of Crunchyroll's shares, and Otter Media was later formed to manage the platform in partnership with AT&T.
Source: The information
