Kadokawa Responds to Sony Acquisition Rumors (& It’s Not a Done Deal Yet)

Kadokawa has shared an official statement following reports of a potential deal for acquisition by Sony, and they have revealed that it’s far from a done deal as of the time of this publication. Anime fans had been questioning the state of the anime industry ever since it was first reported by Reuters that Sony was currently in talks with Kadokawa for a potential acquisition. While that initial report highlighted the fact that Sony was already working closely with the game development studio FromSoftware, Kadokawa has major stakes in the anime, light novel, and foreign licensing processes. So it’s brought up some questions about what a merge of the two companies would look like.

But for Kadokawa themselves, they have shared a statement confirming that the potential deal between them and Sony has yet to be confirmed. Noting that they “received an initial letter of intent to acquire the Company’s shares, but no decision has been made at this time,” Kadokawa makes sure to emphasize that no official decision has been made and that they will be sharing the official announcement on the matter if so. The full statement is below.

Kadokawa Responds to Sony Acquisition Reports

“There are some articles on the acquisition of Kadokawa Corporation (hereinafter “the Company”) by Sony Group Inc. However, this information is not announced by the Company. The Company has received an initial letter of intent to acquire the Company’s shares, but no decision has been made at this time. If there are any facts that should be announced in the future, we will make an announcement in a timely and appropriate manner,” the official statement from Kadokawa reads following the reports of Sony’s potential acquisition of the company.

The initial report might have focused on FromSoftware’s role in the gaming industry, but Kadokawa is far bigger than just that one company they work with. They have stakes in gaming, manga, light novels, anime, and all sorts of production and distribution facets in Japan and in international territories. As fans have seen Sony steadily acquire other major anime related entities in the last few years, this would undoubtedly be the biggest new acquisition for the company yet as Kadokawa is influential in many aspects of the anime pipeline from source material to potential TV anime adaptations.

RELATED: FromSoftware Being Owned by Sony Would Be Horrible for the Gaming Industry

What Happens If Sony Acquires Kadokawa?

With Sony already overseeing a great deal of the anime industry with production studios such as A-1 Pictures and CloverWorks, a full acquisition of Kadokawa would then put even more studios under this single umbrella. This includes notable standouts like the recently acquired by Kadokawa, Doga Kobo (which has made a name for itself with Oshi no Ko and Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian), but also major franchises like Delicious in Dungeon, Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-, The Rising of the Shield Hero, and many more. But Kadokawa goes far beyond its TV or film anime productions.

Kadokawa also has a great deal of investments within the manga, light novel, and licensing industries. It would net Sony an unprecedented level of oversight across the entire anime industry production pipeline. They’d have a stake in what gets published, what gets licensed, what gets an anime adaptation, where it will be streaming outside of Japan, and more. It’s a lot of buying power within a single entity, and that’s probably not great for the overall health of the anime industry unless Sony is willing to better help those who make it all happen in the day to day process.