The deal between Sony and FromSoftware's parent company, Kadokawa, has been officially signed. However, instead of the hypothetical total buyout, the former increased its stake in the Japanese company, officially becoming its largest shareholder. The news comes directly from a press release from Sony, which states that the two will collaborate to form a strategic asset and commercial alliance.
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If this deal between Sony and Kadokawa goes through, it could mean very big things.
“Kadokawa Corporation and Sony Group Corporation today signed a strategic capital and business alliance agreement, agreeing to effectuate a third-party assignment by Kadokawa to Sony on January 7, 2025, with Sony acquiring 12,054,100 new Kadokawa shares for approximately 50 billion yen,” the announcement said. “With the acquisition of the new shares, Sony will become Kadokawa's largest shareholder, holding approximately 10% of its shares, including shares previously acquired by Sony in February 2021.”
Sony now owns 10% of Kadokawa
The deal between the two companies has been in the works for weeks, leading to speculation that Sony wanted to fully take over Kadokawa's IP estate that spans from video games to anime. However, it seems that Sony is quite happy to increase its overall share to 10%.
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“This alliance is expected to not only further strengthen our IP creation capabilities, but also increase our IP media mix options with Sony's support for global expansion, allowing us to deliver our IP to more users worldwide,” said a statement from Kadokawa CEO. Takeshi Natsuno. “We are confident that this will go a long way in maximizing the value of our intellectual property and increasing the value of our company in the medium to long term.”
Based on this statement, it seems that part of the collaboration for Kadokawa would see it leverage Sony's global presence to take its IPs to the world, while Sony would take advantage of the Japanese company's very popular IP.
Sony Group Corporation's Hiroki Totoki's statement appears to echo this idea, saying: “Through this capital and business alliance, we will become the largest shareholder of Kadokawa, which consistently creates a wide variety of intellectual property, including publications and books, such as light novel”. and comics, as well as games and anime.”
FromSoftware fans have been worried about how Sony's involvement could ruin future games from developer Elden Ring, but perhaps this deal could ease their concerns a bit.
With world-building by Game of Thrones writer George RR Martin and developed by FromSoftware, Elden Ring is a masterpiece in what has become known as the “Soulslike” genre of action role-playing games.
