Forum - View topicNEWS: Report: AT&T Offers Crunchyroll to Sony for US$1.5 Billion
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Ushio
Posts: 630 |
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Sony is the biggest anime distributer and publisher in Japan through Aniplex which was founded in 1995 by Sony and own A-1 Pictures one of the most successful and prolific anime studio's. I don't think Sony is going to suddenly give up on anime. |
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Netero
Posts: 161 |
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When the source material was made in 720p? Can't see that 8K is going to buy you anything extra. But as for the merger itself, although in general I'm not in favour of monopolies, if it meant I could get most of my anime for a single subscription then I'm all for it. |
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curtisd88
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On one hand this does make it seem like a monopoly on anime streaming/distributing which COULD potentially be a negative thing down the road when it comes to things like pricing.
On the other hand, this COULD also mean that Crunchyroll and Funimation would be coming back together again and could maybe have everything merged under one roof, which means one whole subscription for both and maybe more home video distribution of overlooked titles. I want to remain optimistic but I won't act like this is without its share of consequences as well. |
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DeTroyes
 Posts: 520 |
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It was an offer, which in this case sounds like its the opening position in an extended round of negotiations. I'm pretty sure AT&T didn't expect to sell it for that much, but it does give Sony an idea where they can make their counter-offer. That's usually how these sort of business deals take shape. I'm guessing Sony will make a counter offer at around $1B, and the final sale price (if it happens) will be somewhere in the middle. Alternately, Sony might decide to wait a few months and see if AT&T's asking price comes down. If AT&T doesn't sell to Sony, there probably aren't a whole lot of buyers out there who might consider purchasing CR. Amazon is a possibility, but after their experience with Anime Strike I'm not sure they want to dip their toes in the anime mizu again. Disney or Netflix might have been possibilities before the whole Covid mess started, but these days both are scrambling for funding. Chinese money is always a possibility I suppose, or perhaps someone might put together an independent bid (probably with Chinese money in the background). ADDENDUM: This probably means that VRV's days are now numbered.
Quick math tells me that they are using 3 Million as their selling-point subscriber base. At $200/user, that would be a bid of $600 Million; at $300/user, a bid of $900 Million. AT&T acquired Crunchyroll when it bought Otter Media in 2018 for $1B, but I cannot find how much of a percentage of that amount represents Crunchyroll. Still, AT&T could sell CR at $1B (app. $333/user) and still come out ahead by getting whatever they can for the remainder of Otter Media. I'm guessing that will be AT&T's bottom line for what they're willing to sell it for. Last edited by DeTroyes on Wed Aug 12, 2020 5:48 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I remember Amazon bought Twitch for 1 billion and Twitch is waaaaaay bigger than Crunchyroll, so that offer was quite ridiculously priced.
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Skerlly Fc
Posts: 79 |
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One day, anime fans are complaining that they want every anime in one place, which will never, ever happen because every streaming service wants to compete. Other day, we have comments like yours, which suggests that a monopoly is bad. Who do I believe in now? Wouldn´t it be good if Funimation and Crunchyroll were working together again? Because at least to me it´s obvious that they´ve had a harder time in attracting new subscribers and managing some of their stuff since they we´re split up, |
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sdsichero
 SubscriberPosts: 157 |
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Well that sucks. I hope it won't be Borged.
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Lord Vaultman
Posts: 810 |
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The thing is though that in no way is crunchyroll times the value of what sony paid for funimation (147 million) this 1.5 billion$ request seems like a joke. Again Funimation may have a smaller paid userbase than crunchyroll but by no means is it ten times smaller. Last edited by Lord Vaultman on Wed Aug 12, 2020 6:16 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Lord Vaultman
Posts: 810 |
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I hate to rain on your parade but you're forgetting about Captain Ds 
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SrkSano
 Posts: 205 |
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Great discussion. I don't know if VRV's days are numbered, but with Crunchyroll recently losing all of the HiDive shows, I suspect that HiDive will leave VRV this year. Or Crunchyroll will leave VRV to be combined with an HBO Max package that mirrors Disney Plus' Hulu / ESPN package.
I would be happy if Funimation picked up Crunchroll. I have entirely seperate issues with both of their PS4 apps. Would love it if they put their heads together and got their PS4 apps running as smooth as Hulu and Netflix work practically of the time. Last edited by SrkSano on Wed Aug 12, 2020 10:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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DeTroyes
Posts: 520 |
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VRV is owned by ATT as well; it came to them in the same deal Crunchyroll was purchased in.
There are still some regional chains. I understand Arthur Treacher's Fish and Chips still survives in Ohio. |
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matt78
Posts: 249 |
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I wonder how much overlap there is between Funimation and Crunchyroll's subscription base? If Crunchyroll is to be sold I would rather it be to Sony since I think the alternatives wouldn't have any idea how to run an anime service. |
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curtisd88
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Yes it would be GREAT if Funimation and Crunchyroll would work together again. This could result in better home video distribution just like their partnership which is ALWAYS a plus in my book. But this where a potential negative also comes in. As a result a new pricing for things like streaming would be issued that could potentially be seen as outrageous depending on who you ask. It could be cheap for one it could be expensive for another, but if Sony owned both they know they would have the most power over western anime streaming and set it to whatever price they want, knowing what the mainstream fanbase craves. Now I'm not saying this will happen but be prepared for this sort of outcome if it does. |
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SilverTalon01
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Not really. There are other major world wide players in the video streaming market. These other major players do have anime on their platforms, and there is no real barrier to them adding more IF they wanted to. You can't really call it a monopoly if other companies are in the position to compete and are choosing not to. |
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OddJobsKatsura
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Some people are missing the point in the evaluation. The article is just using one metric to evaluate the deal. There are many ways to make that evaluation. AT&T is probably including more than subscription revenue. For example, what's CR's
value of: social media, their conventions/Anime Awards, their business connections, IP, their originals, etc. 1.5 B sounds like a lot, but can anyone imagine 20 years ago Sony would buy Funimation for 143 M? You really have to be forward thinking when it comes to business evaluations, instead of relying on one metric like $500 / customer. Sony is in the right position to make a deal though. For example, if Funimation has 1 million subscribers and Sony makes $100 / customer; it's reasonable to ask for $300 M from AT&T because Crunchyroll would be 3 times larger than Funimation's evaluation. However, that's just one metric and like I explained earlier it doesn't make sense to use one. Personally I would like for Funimation and Crunchyroll to work again. That partnership was the best thing to happen to fans. Keep both companies separate, but working together. Crunchyroll did subs and marketing better while Funimation did dubs and physical releases better. Win Win. |
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