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THR: SoftBank Acquires DramaFever
posted on by Rachel Mahoney
Japanese telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank announced on Tuesday that it will acquire international video streaming site DramaFever through SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc. (SIMI). The details of the deal have not yet been disclosed.
DramaFever streams over 700 titles from 12 countries, including Korean dramas, Latin American telenovelas, and other Asian television shows with subtitles in five different languages for free. These shows include live-action adaptations of various manga series, including Hayate the Combat Butler, Absolute Boyfriend, and Skip Beat!. DramaFever will co-produce Tomorrow's Cantabile, the upcoming South Korean drama adaptation of Nodame Cantabile.
Nikesh Arora, vice chair of SoftBank and CEO of SIMI, said, "We look forward to helping [the DramaFever co-founders] bring their highly popular video content to an even larger global audience."
This deal comes after SoftBank announced it would invest US$250 million in Thomas Tull's Legendary Pictures studio by the end of this month. SoftBank also acquired Sprint for US$21.6 billion in 2013 and owns a $72.3 billion stake in e-commerce group Alibaba. However, investors in SoftBank saw the corporation's stock fall because of the uncertainty over its bid on DreamWorks Animation. According to The Hollywood Reporter, SoftBank's bid to acquire DreamWorks Animation failed to result in a deal.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
