Forum - View topicNEWS: Report: U.S. Justice Department Extends Antitrust Review of Sony's Proposed Acquisition of Cru
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ErikaD.D
Posts: 659 |
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But ironically, DoJ is OK on Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Disney etc. They don't stop Disney on acquisition of Fox. This is double standarts. RIP Aniplex animes on CR.
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scowler
 Posts: 92 |
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The US Justice Department would have a reasonably strong case if they decide to contest this deal.
Sony's strongest defense is that Netflix does license a lot of new anime as well. Is that a strong enough case? We'll see. |
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3652 |
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I'm not an anti-trust expert, does extending the review period really mean anything, or is that routine?
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Toloran
Posts: 33 |
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That's a really polite way of say 'hosted illegal fan translations'. |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5316 |
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Honestly there is no valid reason why Sony needs CR, they have both their own branch(Aniplex USA) and Funimation. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Politics were in play for the Disney deal, and it’s also why they did try to stop they AT&T/Time Warner deal, even though that one didn’t actually cut down on competition as AT&T had almost no entertainment holdings at the time. American anti-trust laws are somewhat outdated and focus primarily on horizontal integration, and not vertical integration. There is a different administration now, so the DOJ is more likely to review and pursue cases like this. The Sony acquisition is very clearly a case of horizontal consolidation, so they do have good cause to review and potentially block the sale or put stricter guidelines on it for a period of time. And in case you haven’t watched the news, there have been a lot of political outcry over Facebook, Apple, Google, and Amazon and the government has been reviewing their business practices for some time. The DOJ did go after Microsoft in the past, but ultimately lost their case at the Supreme Court. And just FYI, I agree 100% percent that the Disney deal should have never been allowed, but it’s pretty much too late for that, and they could only bring a case if they catch Disney aggressively abusing their power. Like it or not, the political makeup of the White House does influence which anti-trust cases the DOJ does pursue, and these deals are more likely to face scrutiny when a Democrat is in power. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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No, they didn’t object to the Fox buyout. They fought against the AT&T one, which was a long shot at best because anti-trust laws mostly horizontal mergers rather than vertical deals like the AT&T/Time Warner deal. Had CNN not been part of Time Warner, I doubt that case would have moved forward. Politics played a big role in those cases. |
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MarshalBanana
Posts: 5316 |
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ZelosZoidberg
 Posts: 636 |
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The real question is can licensed content be monopolized. At least that's how I'm looking at the case.
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paworksfan
Posts: 9 |
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The Disney/Fox thing was unavoidable.
1. Fox was determined to exit film production because they were losing a ton of money. (More on why later). 2. Because they were wise to get out before hitting rock bottom and still had value, Fox was worth more than anyone but Disney was willing to pay. (Again, why later.) 3. Put 1. and 2. together and had Fox not found a buyer, they would have gone the firesale auction route. 4. Who would have won the firesale auctions for their library and IP? Why the company with the most money to pay. Which was going to be Disney. And there would have been no legal way to block them from buying it. 5. Except that Disney wouldn't have been required to take on Fox's liabilities: film lots, corporate divisions, projects in development, employees and pension obligations. They would have been able to just buy the film library, the rights to X-Men and ditch the rest. Now for the "later" part: the U.S. film industry is on life support. Box office receipts are "OK" only due to inflated ticket prices and decent attendance in urban areas, the northeast and the far west. But actual movie attendance as a proportion of population has been declining for decades. In most of the U.S. few people attend movies at all. Entire genres - western, detective, police, adventure, military, comedy, romance, adult drama, kids/family movies that aren't CGI animation - are dead. Meanwhile the cost of producing and promoting movies has risen exponentially and - except for horror - the few genres that are still viable are the most expensive to produce and promote. All of the small and mid-major film studios except Lionsgate (who releases most of their films to DVD/VOD) are either dead or exist only on paper as a division of a much larger studio. Of the major studios, only Disney is independent. The rest are owned by much bigger companies like AT&T (Warner Bros), Comcast (Universal), National Amusements (Paramount) and Sony (Columbia/TriStar) as part of "vertical integration" deals. So, that's why the feds just looked the other way when it came to Disney buying Fox. All the other alternatives were much worse. |
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Hoppy800
 Posts: 3331 |
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To think that Sony's attempt to monopolize anime was the worst of it, now I read that they are most likely breaking antitrust laws in the process, the DoJ should not let the sale go through.
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Lord Vaultman
Posts: 810 |
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I seriously doubt that Sony had any intention of breaking anti trust laws when it came to this. Now onto the main topic I Honestly I wasn't sure what was going to happen with this but all I can say with certainty is that there would most definitely still be competition besides just netflix (4kids, and sentai still say hello) plus there is the others that deal primarily in older licenses. Its close but I wouldn't think it was a monopoly just yet considering japan still has to approve the license. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16935 |
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Color me surprised they care enough to do this. I would not have thought anime would have been a large enough market for the DOJ to get involved and care, in terms of anti-trust and such. It's a niche entertainment subset within media as a whole.
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ReNellGlover
Posts: 122 |
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Except 4Kids has been dead for nearly a decade. |
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Lord Vaultman
Posts: 810 |
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They still keep licensing movies and own the rights to studio ghobli movies. Don't give me that. Plus I can't believe I forgot about Viz media who licenses the big time shows frequently. |
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