Sony Group Corporation is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire Kadokawa Corporation, a major Japanese publisher of anime, which could make billions in potential earnings.
Kadokawa Corp., a publicly traded company, wants Sony to buy it entirely or not at all, dispelling talks of a possible partnership, Bloomberg reported.
The potential deal could strengthen Sony's position in the growing anime industry, which has grown quickly worldwide, and even streaming giants are battling for anime supremacy.
Kadokawa holds extensive intellectual property, including the rights to over 100,000 comics, fantasy and sci-fi novels; anime creation capabilities, and stakes in popular game studios like FromSoftware, known for hits like Elden Ring.
While Sony has relied on external publishers for anime IP for its PlayStation platform, owning Kadokawa would enable greater control over its content through license agreements reported the news outlet.
Sony could be able to take an anime series and turn it into a fantasy universe for gamers, which would increase revenue from cross-media opportunities, similar to its success with music and gaming IPs.
Experts view the acquisition as beneficial for Sony, a company that has done an impressive amount of groundwork to expand its anime portfolio, reported Bloomberg.
Sony has an anime planning subsidiary, Aniplex, that scored a win by turning Demon Slayer into an anime series and record-breaking movies. It also bought Crunchyroll, an anime distributor that plays a leading role in the anime audiences watch globally.
Sony is also a shareholder of FromSoftware, which is led by Hidetaka Miyazaki, the video game creator behind Elden Ring, Armored Core and Dark Souls.
The anime industry valued at $19.5 billion in 2022 by the Association of Japanese Animations.
Kadokawa has been a potential takeover target before.
It attracted the attention of Microsoft, Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Kakao Corporation but the company's former chairman, Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, ended the talks.
