Forum - View topicNEWS: Geneon to Merge with Universal Pictures Japan
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KabaKabaFruit
 Posts: 1877 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Corporate takeovers of any business usually raise red flags. Reading this news has me concerned about the future of Hellsing Ultimate. If the show winds up being put in limbo as a result of this buyout, I'm going to be very very angry.
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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However, the US economy is in the toilet. All areas, I assume entertainment included, are taking a hit. At least until the dust settles I really doubt anyone wants to monkey with anything. After that Universal may indeed decide they have a superior delivery mode & take over the distribution. As I recall Geneon switched distributors more than once. I thought at one time they used Right Stuf. I know there was one company that announced using Right Stuff, then something like a year later announced a different distributor. It's possible the contract with Funi already has a date on it & rather than renew it Universal might choose to take over. This is all speculation. It really depends on where things are going with this. It sounds as if most of the action is going on in Japan & it may not involve the US side of the deal. It might mean we'll see Geneon titles in the shops at Universal Studios Theme Parks in the future. It might mean Universal looking to pick up some of the Asian market-not just anime. Companies often aren't just American or Japanese or British any longer when they try to compete in the world market. They look to have a foot in their larger markets. The immediate benefit to Universal is they have a home for their stuff in Japan. Dentsu is an advertisement company so this takes them out of what could be seen as a former attempt at broadening their horizons although they have seen fit to retain a piece of it. Can't be that unprofitable. But Col. Wolfe is a known Funi hater so s/he always looks for the worst side of Funi news. |
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firedragon54738
 Posts: 3113 Location: wisconsin |
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so i wonder if geneon coming back to the US or just stay the way it is now
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kokuryu
 Posts: 915 |
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Mmm, more edited anime to come then... That's too bad... I was hoping it would just simply fade away...
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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I don't know this may be a good thing. I mean Dentsu is an advertising company at heart right. At least Universal should theoretically have more experience handling companies like Geneon. Like maybe it will force Geneon USA to wake up and be a little more active. I am sure that particular division went for dirt cheap as it was. Might as well use it.
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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Ho...ly...crap. First Geneon USA, and now Geneon Japan will be merging thus creating a new company. No more Geneon products. I'm hoping that Hellsing Ultimate isn't in jeopardy because of this.
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melonbread
Posts: 317 Location: UK (London) |
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I'm clueless on the ins and outs of this deal, but maybe it's something along the lines of this? Or it could be the other way round. I really want to know what this means! |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2568 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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So many people, I think, are rushing towards bad thoughts without even looking at what Universal has already done in Japan.
Universal Pictures Japan has been doing anime for a bit already. UPJ is the company releasing Wangan Midnight, Zaizen Jotaro, Souten no Ken, and Oh! Edo Rocket on DVD over in Japan, so UPJ merging with Geneon Japan is more of a good thing in the end. As for Universal Pictures USA, if this will link to them in any way, it has been releasing foreign films on DVD for a while now. One of their most recent releases, the live-action Dororo movie, was a sub-only release with both traditional subs as well as subs mixed with captions for sound effects. Since there was no dub made for Dororo, the subs are not dubtitled in any way, and from what I checked out of my DVD the subs were just fine. So, in all reality, there is more good coming from this than bad so far. |
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Colonel Wolfe
 Posts: 370 |
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I can't believe the big assumptions being made about ownership and transfer of acquisitions that a company has when another one acquires them.
First off, when a company acquires another company, in a court of law, this means that all assets and liabilities are transfered to the new company. Where it concerns contracts, deals or agreements that the acquired company had made prior to it being acquired by another company, this means that the majority of the time those agreements, contracts and deals are usually unenforceable and won't stand up in court. Secondly, since it involves Universal, chances are, they'll void those agreements. Dentsu, Geneon Japan and Geneon USA were all controlled by the same company. If that weren't so then Geneon USA wouold never have stopped producing new anime. Geneon Japan and Geneon USA will probably be absorbed into Universal Japan and rebranded into a new company where we'll end up seeing a new US-based company distributing their licensed anime titles. Finally, if Universal Japan decides that it will work closely with Funimation then they'll end up working out new agreements with Geneon under new terms meaning that they'll want the entire catalogue put into rotation. NBC Universal and Universal Japan will still be considered part of the same company. |
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KabaKabaFruit
Posts: 1877 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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All I really care about is seeing Hellsing Ultimate completed. I don't want to see the show put in permanent limbo because a few corporate suits don't like the fact that there are Nazi portrayals in the anime.
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Calculusman
 Posts: 309 Location: Virginia |
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Indeed
Yet, you don't explain why. If companies buy the debts as well as the assets that would normally, I assume, include contract obligations. Why are those "debts" any different from any other debts, and why would being held to those contracts be any different in a court of law than any other debt they would purchase from Dentsu. Who made the contract is, in essense, irrelevant. They own them. That's the important part. I just don't see how someone can just say "nevermind" about a contract because they weren't the ones who initially negotiated it. And as someone else noted, it's likely that the contract itself already has a contingency for this.
If this new company even wants to get into the anime business, at least as far as US distribution is concerned - something which is far, far from assured - then I would agree with you that we're likely to see rebranding. However, I'm not sure how this automatically translates into UPJ just "yanking" the distribution licenses from Funimation, even if they could do that. The question is: why would they unilaterally pull the contract and, once again, halt distribution of their series in the middle. That wouldn't exactly be a good first PR move for this yet-unnammed, yet-announced hypothetical rebranded anime distribution company. Might they want the distro rights to their titles back? Yes, perhaps eventually. However, that is probably going in involve another negotiation with Funimation so it's done as seemlessly as possible, and probably won't involve just voiding contracts.
Why would they necessarily want a new contract? You're assuming that UPJ is going to want to do something different with Geneon USA than Dentsu did. We have no evidence of that, and I don't think we can assume that. |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7986 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Umm....what are you on about? I'm sorry, but this statement just makes no sense whatsoever. Geneon has never ever edited any of their anime for stateside release. Very few companies ever do that these days. 
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MeggieMay
 Posts: 607 |
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This is also quite a tangled web going on here. I'm not sure how Universal Japan is related to NBCUniversal, though going by the way the article is worded UPIE is a division of NBCU. Either way, Col. Wolf you're way over simplifying what could happen here. IMO you're underestimating Entertainment Industry lawyers on both sides here if you think NBCU could simply and easily void contracts due to a sale. Entertainment Law is a entire sub division of Business Law to begin with. All sorts of things have to be sorted out and Funi's lawyers very easily could foresee something like this happening, seeing how unstable Geneon Japan has been, and stuck in clauses to cover their b*tts.
The top three things that crossed my mind when I read this were A)how is this going to affect anime production in the Japanese side, first and foremost (that would cover the Hellsing (more OVAs?) aspect, as well), B)how will it affect Funimations ability to potentially pick up extra seasons of shows they're currently distributing (I do not think they'll lose their current distribution deal though it may not be renewed but all of that is at least going to take everyone involved a good six months, if not longer, to figure out what they want to do, IMO), and C) how is this going to potentially affect Ani Monday/Manga Ent/Starz! deal with Sci Fi Channel (which is a whole owned subsidiary of NBC Universal - this could potentially cut out the need for a middle man like Manga/Starz)? These are all just questions at this point. This deal has to actually be finalized to begin with before everyone actually involved can start working out how things are going to fall out. Also with the economy the way it is other wild card options could pop up and make this entire issue with Funi a non issue by the time all is said and done. |
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Brians9824
Posts: 281 |
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As far as i'm aware this really has no impact on us in the States at all. Geneon USA is unaffected by this as they are a seperate entity from Geneon Japan.
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Colonel Wolfe
Posts: 370 |
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Calculus, what I'm saying, in the simplest terms is that Universal Japan would not be under any legal obligation to honor the agreements that Geneon had with Funimation under their distribution deal since those deals/discussions were made prior to Universal acquiring a majority ownership in the company.
Put it this way: if I had acquired Geneon and decided that I was going to change the name of the company into a new brand name and Geneon had made agreements with Funimation prior to my acquiring the company then I would not be under any legal obligation to honor those agreements. If I decided to honor the base groundwork of the original agreement then I would decide on opening dialogue for a new agreement since Funimation would need to re-discuss the agreements since a new owner of the company is now involved. |
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