Sony in talks to acquire ‘Elden Ring’ publisher Kadokawa
Sony Group Corporation is in talks to acquire Japanese conglomerate Kadokawa, according to media reports that emerged this week. The company’s animation and games properties could underlie its potential mergers and acquisitions.
Kadokawa is a 79-year-old film, gaming, publishing and animation company listed on the main Tokyo Stock Exchange. Shares rose about 23% on Tuesday after Reuters news agency published a report on the negotiations, citing two anonymous sources.
Contacted by VarietySony declined to comment. Kadokawa has not responded so far.
Hostile takeover bids are extremely rare in Japan. And if talks move forward, the most likely outcome is an agreed deal or failed talks. However, commentators in Japan are already starting to wonder whether Sony would try to acquire the entire Kadokawa group, or spin out its anime and games businesses.
Sony’s senior management has not hidden its ambitions to expand through acquisitions in the games, imaging and music entertainment sectors. And the medium-term strategic plan calls for the group to own more intellectual property and increase its presence in anime. Sony already owns a 2% stake in Kadokawa, which claimed in a recent “integrated report” to control the rights to 130,000 books and 2,000 videos.
Sony, which bought streaming platform Crunchyroll in 2021 and merged it with its own Funimation operation, has become a major player in Japanese animation. The Sony Music Entertainment Japan unit controls Aniplex, one of the producers behind the smash hit ‘Demon Slayer’ film and TV franchise. Aniplex also owns animation studios A-1 Pictures and CloverWorks.
Kadokawa owns a controlling 70% stake in FromSoftware, the company behind the action role-playing game ‘Elden Ring’, ‘Dark Souls’ and the ‘Armored Core’ game series. It also includes ‘Bloodborne’, a PlayStation exclusive game title. The unit’s minority owners are Sony with a 16% stake and China’s Tencent, with a 14% stake.
On the publishing front, Kadokawa has Key-Process imprints ASCII Media Works, Enterbrain, Fujimi Shobo and Media Factory), KADOKAWA Game Linkage (which publishes B’s-LOG, Comptiq, Dengeki Nintendo and Weekly Famitsu), J-Novel Club and Yen Druk. It also owns the Walker paper and web publishing company and Anime News Network.
Kadokawa’s animation businesses include the recently acquired Doga Kobo, Studio Kadan, Raging Bull and Bellnox Films. It has further ties with Kinema Citrus and Studio Chizu.
In the field of film, the company is currently developing 10-15 projects. On this year’s film slate, he was the Japanese partner in the private French-Japanese co-production “Serpent’s Path,” with Kurosawa Kiyoshi remaking his own 1998 revenge thriller. Last year it was behind Kitano Takeshi’s competition title ‘Kubi’ in Cannes.
