Anime streaming service Funimation has reached an agreement to buy competitor anime streaming service Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion in cash. Sony Pictures and Sony Music own Funimation. AT&T currently owns Crunchyroll.
Sony and AT&T have been in talks for some time now to make this purchase a reality. AT&T has a lot of long-term debt ($153.39 billion) and has been trying to sell off some of its assets.
AT&T owns Warner Bros., which owns DC Entertainment. Under DC Entertainment is DC Comics, the publisher of comics and books. Personally, I don’t see the long-term logic in trying to sell off DC Comics. Warner Bros. will be using the intellectual property of DC Comics for years to come in movies and television programming. They have nothing to gain by selling DC Comics. If they were to do anything, I could see them, instead, stop publishing monthly comic books. It’s an antiquated business model. It’s based on publishing chapters sold in specialty shops. Every other publisher is publishing complete books that are sold in book stores and major retailers.
AT&T has nothing to gain from selling monthly floppies. They also have nothing to gain from separating DC Comics from DC Entertainment.
I’m not at all surprised AT&T wanted to get out of the anime streaming business. I am surprised they were able to sell Crunchyroll for that much money.
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