Sony nears acquisition of Crunchyroll, according to a report.
Sony had entered into final negotiations to acquire U.S. anime streaming service Crunchyroll from AT&T, according to a report.
This, as Nikkei Asia reported that a deal could catapult the Japanese icon into a global battle with the likes of Hulu and Netflix.
With this, Sony could end up spending over 100 billion yen (equivalent to USD 957 million) on Crunchyroll, gaining its 70 million members worldwide.
As per the report, global competition for content among companies such as Hulu and Netflix would intensify if the said acquisition was realized.
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Crunchyroll was founded in 2006 and had its headquarters in San Francisco, California. It was last 2018 when AT&T — the telecommunications giant in the United States — became its parent company.
In addition, Crunchyroll had 3 million paying subscribers and 70 million free members in over 200 countries and regions — including Europe and the United States.
Recently, Sony obtained the exclusive right to negotiate for Crunchyroll.
Sony gained one million paying subscribers after acquiring Funimation in 2017, but came up against obstacles expanding its customer base.
With the COVID-19 convincing people across the globe to entertain themselves at home, competition for popular content was intensifying and demand for video distribution services was swelling.
Netflix formed alliances with animation studios, while Disney took its popular library last year and started its own streaming service.
Meanwhile, Sony was set to formally launch PlayStation 5 on November this year. Recently, Sony’s Vice President of Mechanical Design Department Yasuhiro Ootori led the teardown of PS5.
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