The telco, looking for every opportunity to pay down its debt, sold Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion in cash paid at closing by Funimation Global Group, a joint venture betweenSony’s goal is to “create a unified anime subscription experience as soon as possible,” Tony Vinciquerra, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures, said in announcing the close of the deal Monday.
Crunchyroll’s streaming service has more 5 million paying subscribers worldwide and 120 million registered users in 200-plus countries. Funimation hasn’t disclosed how many subscribers or users it has. The closing of Funimation’s acquisition of Crunchyroll will let both services “broaden distribution for their content partners and expand fan-centric offerings for consumers,” AT&T and Sony said in an announcement.
Sony Pictures Television bought a controlling stake in Funimation in 2017 for $143 million. In 2019, Funimation founder Gen Fukunaga stepped out of day-to-day management. Fukunaga had founded Funimation in 1994 after a career in IT and consulting. “We are very excited to welcome Crunchyroll to the Sony Group,” Kenichiro Yoshida, chairman, president and CEO of Sony Group, said in a statement. “Anime is a rapidly growing medium that enthralls and inspires emotion among audiences around the globe. The alignment of Crunchyroll and Funimation will enable us to get even closer to the creators and fans who are the heart of the anime community.”
I can only hope that Sony decides to upgrade their apps for both services as CR’s app is slow to load and unstable while FUN’s app is faster but has a convoluted layout. Also, since FUN is primarily a dub focused site their subtitles options are subpar.