A month after From Software parent company Kadokawa Corporation confirmed that it was in talks to be acquired by Sony, both companies have now formed a strategic capital and business alliance which will make Sony its largest shareholder. While this isn’t exactly an acquisition, Sony will now have a greater presence in Kadokawa that enables stronger collaborations.
As reported by Gematsu, Sony Group Corporation has signed a strategic capital and business alliance agreement with Kadokawa Corporation to acquire 12,054,100 new shares of From Software’s parent company for approximately 50 billion yen (or roughly $320 million). After the acquisition of shares, Sony will hold about 10% of Kadokawa’s shares, which is in addition to the shares that it acquired back in 2021.
Kadokawa Corporation isn’t just the parent company of Elden Ring developer From Software but also Spike Chunsoft, the developer behind Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero and the Danganronpa games, and Acquire, the developer of Mario & Luigi: Brothership and the Octopath Traveler games.
Sony provided a statement breaking down the alliance:
“Kadokawa and Sony historically have collaborated on various projects, and through this capital and business alliance, intend to further strengthen our collaboration to maximise both companies’ [intellectual property] value globally and facilitate wider and deeper collaboration, such as potential joint investments in the content field, joint discovery of new creators, and joint promotion of further media mixes of both companies’ [intellectual property].”
“In the future, the two companies plan to discuss specific initiatives for collaboration, such as initiatives to adapt Kadokawa’s [intellectual property] into live-action films and TV dramas globally, co-produce anime works, expand global distribution of Kadokawa’s anime works through the Sony Group, further expand publishing of Kadokawa’s games, and develop human resources to promote and expand virtual production,” Sony added, which means we’ll likely see Sony produce live-action movies or television shows based on some of Kadokawa’s franchises.
Sony Group Corporation president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki added:
“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 novels and comics, as well as games and anime.”
Source: Gematsu
