Forum - View topicNEWS: Geneon to Merge with Universal Pictures Japan
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Tenchi Saotome
 Posts: 14 Location: Ohio, near Cleveland |
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I've stayed quiet for too long with Colonel Wolfe's crap, please provide proof with what you are saying or please be quite. I don't think that would happen because the company just merged with Universal. It's not like Universal just bought the properties is it. The thing is Colonel Wolfe that every body thinks that what you say could be true even if they don't think it's very likely, but you do not even think that you could be wrong. NOW please provide proof other than your say so that you are or could be more right, PLEASE.
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Colonel Wolfe
 Posts: 370 |
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Tenchi, knock the crap off. NO need to be rude or crass about it. I know what I'm talking about. Funimation will end up losing their distribution rights to the Geneon titles as Universal will want to release themselves.
Look forward to those contract agreements to be voided by Universal Japan as they restructure the new company. |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Has most forgotten that Sci-Fi is owned by Universal? So Universal know all about anime. Only time will tell, but I can only see this as a good thing as Dentsu being basically an ad and publishing company really didn't have time for a failing subsidiary that couldn't support itself. When Geneon was Pioneer they use to commission anime productions. Tenchi Muyo, El-Hazard, are just two of them that come to mind. Maybe with a media company like NBC/Universal that will resume with more new commissions. This repotting is in furtile soil, lets see what grows?
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Colonel Wolfe
Posts: 370 |
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Mohawk, I see this as a good thing.
Universal will be in a terrific position when this merger is complete. Not only will they be able to broadcast anime through the Sci Fi channel, but they'll also be able to tie advertising for the DVD releases directly through Sci Fi Channel. I think Universal is in a better marketing position to broadcast, distribute and market the Geneon catalogue than Funimation is and they have the resources available to do just that. I'm not talking just a two hours block of anime, I'm talking about dedicated programming through periodic rotation. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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Do you have a quote or a source to back this up? Any sort of concrete information? |
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Furudanuki
 Posts: 1874 |
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If you know what you are talking about then how about - as several others have already requested - providing some examples to back up your claims? Your personal expertise in the area of corporate and/or contract law consists of what? Have you ever been personally involved in a corporate merger or acquisition in either a legal, accounting, auditing, or compliance role? I have. Up until recently I worked for a large regional bank holding company - a Fortune 500/Forbes Platinum 400 level corporation - and absorbing a smaller bank or holding company was a regular event. When a company we were considering for purchase had their own internal data processing facilities I was frequently assigned to work with the due diligence team as either the IS Audit officer-in-charge or as a consultant. Do you have any idea how many contractual agreements are typically in force for even a small data processing facility? Contracts for: hardware and/or software leases, building leases, equipment maintenance, facility maintenance, disaster backup and recovery, records storage, reciprocal processing agreements, third-party processing agreements, supplies, sensitive waste disposal, insurance... the list could go on and on. If the initial evaluation uncovered no immediate issues, and senior management decided to proceed with the acquisition, the next phase of the process began. During that phase our corporate legal department would review each and every one of those contracts to determine what options were available to us should we decide to purchase the company. That information was then given to the due diligence team who would perform a cost-benefits analysis and recommend a course of action. Many times the contracts in question would expire before the anticipated merger date and thus were not a significant concern. Some contracts would have early termination clauses in which we were allowed to pay a fee to get out of the contract before the scheduled expiration date. Other contracts were for services that would need to continue even after the merger and would have to be renegotiated before they expired. Off the top of my head I can remember nine such acquisitions in which I was directly involved, and at least three others in which I had a peripheral role. However, in all those acquisitions there was not one single instance where our corporate legal department suggested - as you have claimed - that a contract would be nullified simply because the company had changed ownership. So I'm quite ready to believe that Universal might well let Geneon's agreement with Funimation expire, or that the contract might contain an early buyout clause. But I am going to have to consider your "purchase nulls contracts" claim to be pure bunk until you show some evidence that convinces me you know something about contract law that the legal department of a multi-billion dollar corporation does not. |
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Colonel Wolfe
Posts: 370 |
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You're talking about two different things. Where it concerns companies and the fact that employees are involved, when one company acquires another company through a merger they often grandfather the employees in but redraw their salary contracts because those workers are already trained for their jobs.
When Dentsu decided to pull out of distribution and production of anime DVD's in the United States, this effectively shut down Geneon USA. If the two companies weren't connected then Geneon USA would never have stopped producing, selling and distributing its catalogue of anime titles in the United States. This indicates that Geneon USA is part of the subsidiary of companies formed under the Dentsu banner. Trust me on this, come February, look forward to an announcement regarding the Universal/Geneon merger affecting the Geneon USA entity and its affect on the Funimation deal. |
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jsieczka
 Posts: 150 Location: Rochester, NY |
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Furudanuki is right recent examples of what he is saying.
Cingullar being taken over by AT&T. No customer was let out of their contract with AT&T, Nor could AT&T modify the existing contracts that customers had with Cingullar until the contract expired. Bank of America taking over MBNA Corporation. MBNA was one of the largest issuer of credit cards in the US, When Bank of America took them over all existing cards were changed over from MBNA were switched over to BoA, The contract on the consumer end was still in effect in that the consumer still had to pay the money owed. All loans, Mortgages, credit cards and any other lending practices are all contracts. If what you are saying is true then at the time of a merger all lending contracts would be void, man that would be nice. If Universal wants out of the contract they will have to as Furudanuki says: 1)find an escape clause in the original contract (A no merger clause, end date, etc) 2)come to a mutual agreement on ending the contract 3)Buy their way out of the contract 4)Have Geneon declare bankruptcy, which would change the whole scope of things. |
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hikaru004
 Posts: 2306 |
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Maybe that's one of the reasons for a turning over date in 2/2009. Coming to a mutual agreement which would include a buy out of the existing licenses. As long as the titles come over in a reasonable manner, that's all that matters. What goes around come around. |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1821 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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Not buying it. Large corporations can be remarkably inept in areas where smaller companies thrive. Bigger is not always better. Apple preceded and has outlasted IBM in the personal computer business. To be fair, Apple knows diddly squat about tapping the enterprise market, never mind that they bought NeXT which did know how to serve large business clients, despite being much smaller than Apple or IBM or Sun or HP (not sure about Red Hat). |
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Colonel Wolfe
Posts: 370 |
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Considering as long as Universal has been in the business I find your statement remarkably naive. They've been in the business for more than 85 years.
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fuuma_monou
Posts: 1821 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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And John McCain is older than Barack Obama. Your point? |
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ac_dropout
Posts: 88 Location: Newark, NJ |
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I'm not so sure that Universal can null and void all agreements between Funimation and Geneon. If that was the case Funimation would be under no obligation to pay Geneon after the merger with Universal.
The easier way is for various distribution agreements to expire and Universal would decide which titles they wished to distribute themselves. Funimation is also a subsidary of one of the largest software and video distributors in the US (their name escapes me) which I believe also distributes some NBC/Universal titles. I guess it depends on how much attention Universal gives to their new anime division in the US. Pioneer, one of the largest coglomerates in the world, sold off Geneon when they deemed the division not profitable enough...so economy of size sometimes doesn't matter. |
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CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
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However, Biblos went into bankruptcy which might change the details. Witness CPM's lawyers told them their contract was solid, but Libre insisting it didn't. It's heavily rumored that Libre made everyone with Biblos contracts re-negotiate with the new owner & all titles were delayed over here thanks to that. So maybe there's a small difference between Japanese Business law & American Business law. Or the backruptcy of the prior company changed the deal. Bottom line is while it apparently didn't go to court, CPM received no more material from Libre which sort of kills any ongoing story. CPM isn't particularly thriving.
Point is Universal Studios has name brand recognition far, far, far greater than Geneon or even NBC(which can stand for tv stations in other countries). People outside of the US know the name even if it is just because of the theme parks. They've been making movies longer than tv has been in most people's homes & they have outlets for selling & also broadcasting their own product to publicize it. At this point no one can say where this is going to come down. I'd love to see Funi stay simply because they know anime & I have no reason to believe Universal understands anime as Funi does. Best case would for at least a few months, even a year or so for Funi to retain the contracts while they learn the market, but we might all be wrong. Maybe they have an excellent grasp on the market already. Maybe they have some of the old Geneon USA people waiting in the wings or just some fanboys/girls. I really don't want them to approach it with the 4Kids attitude that the original product could be butchered & sold to the kid market with the idea they'll sell tons of product rivaling the glory days of Pokemon & YuGiOh. They have a history of appealing to an adult audience so I hope they at least follow the current mode. We might even see improved dubbing Maybe this is purely a deal to get them a distributor in Japan & they'll leave the American side alone |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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I think people need to remember that Dentsu still owns twenty percent of Geneon. It wasn't a complete buyout. So it's not like they won't get a say, maybe not a majority say, but a say nonetheless. As far as contracts, that means Dentsu isn't completely null and void, so why would their contracts be.
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