Crunchyroll, currently the biggest anime streaming website, is under talks to change hands from AT&T to Sony.
Anime has a huge fanbase not just in Japan but overseas as well. Streaming websites have been trying their best to include more anime titles in their catalogues due to their rising popularity.
Crunchyroll and Funimation remain the prominent anime streamers. Sony already owns Funimation.
From what we know so far, Sony has already entered the final stage of negotiation to acquire Crunchyroll. According to Nikkei Asia, Sony could end up spending more than $957 million on Crunchyroll.
Reportedly, Sony is the company that has the sole right to negotiate for Crunchyroll. AT&T previously approached Sony to sell Crunchyroll in August.
However, the massive sum of $1.5 billion that AT&T had demanded for the streaming service at first made Sony baulk.
AT&T has revised its selling price, and its last standpoint was $1 billion. Variety stated that the offer of selling Crunchyroll was made to several other potential buyers other than Sony.
Crunchyroll has 70 million registered users as of July. AT&T has collected a debt of above $152 billion. This debt is one of the main reasons behind trading Crunchyroll.
Sony is already the owner of Funimation, another famous anime streaming platform. Sony is also a conglomerate business that deals in multiple sectors, thus making it one of the best options to sell Crunchyroll to.
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Now that Sony is ready to spend nearly a billion dollars, the Crunchyroll deal doesn’t seem as far off as it did before. The 3 million and above paid users of Crunchyroll are also a great asset to the company.
Will Crunchyroll retain its independence as a streaming platform, or will it be merged with Funimation? These questions will soon follow if the deal between AT&T and Sony is successful.
Source: Nikkei Asia
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