Sony will become the largest Kadokawa shareholder with $320 million investment

No complete acquisition planned

Sony / Kadokawa

Japanese media empires Sony and Kadokawa have signed a business agreement that will see Sony become Kadokawa’s largest shareholder in January 2025. Sony will invest around $320 million USD into Kadokawa, bringing up the amount of shares it controls to about 10%.

The announcement of this agreement followed speculation around Sony acquiring the entirety of Kadokawa. Both companies even acknowledged that such negotiations had taken place. Now, a total acquisition has been ruled out.

Kadokawa owns several video game development studios, such as FromSoftware and Spike Chunsoft, which brought the potential deal into the industry’s spotlight. Sony buying additional shares likely won’t have any massive effects on Kadokawa’s video game subsidiaries, though, so fans can lay to rest fears about FromSoftware games becoming exclusive to PlayStation across the board.

Sony stated that the agreement would deepen the already existing ties between the companies, emphasizing that more collaboration could “maximize both companies’ IP value globally,” pave the way for “potential joint investments in the content field, joint discovery of new creators, and joint promotion of further media mixes of both companies’ IP.”

Kadokawa’s treasure trove of IP, which includes some of the most popular anime and manga series, could be adapted “into live-action films and TV dramas globally.” Sony also mentioned co-producing anime works and expanding the distribution of Kadokawa’s products globally.

“We are very pleased to conclude this capital and business alliance agreement with Sony,” Kadokawa CEO Takeshi Natsuno stated. “This alliance is expected to not only further strengthen our IP creation capabilities, but also increase our IP media mix options with Sony’s support for global expansion, allowing us to deliver our IP to more users around the world. We are confident that this will greatly contribute to maximizing the value of our IP and increasing our corporate value in the mid- to long-term. We intend to do our utmost to ensure that our collaborative efforts with Sony produce great results in the global market.”

Hiroki Totoki, Sony’s COO, CFO, and president, added: “Through this capital and business alliance, we will become the largest shareholder of Kadokawa, which consistently creates a wide variety of IP, including publications and books, such as light novels and comics, as well as games and anime. By combining Kadokawa’s extensive IP and IP creation ecosystem with the strengths of Sony, which has promoted the global expansion of a wide range of entertainment, including anime and games, we plan to work closely together to realize Kadokawa’s ‘Global Media Mix’ strategy, aimed at maximizing the value of its IP, and Sony’s long-term vision, ‘Creative Entertainment Vision.”