
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), a subsidiary of Sony, announced that it has completed the acquisition of Ellation Holdings, operator of animation delivery service Crunchyroll.
In December 2020, Sony completed the acquisition eight months after it announced that it had signed a definitive contract to acquire the entire stake in Illation Holdings. The acquisition price is 1.3 trillion won.
Crunchy Roll is a service that started in 2006. At first, it was an illegal site where users upload animations without permission, but it grew rapidly with the support of overseas animation fans.
Since then, he has steadily increased the number of members, has delivered comics, conducted game events, and has extended his hands to animation production. In addition to Asia, the United States and Europe, the service is being developed in the Middle East and Africa, and the number of registered users has exceeded 100 million worldwide. It has more than 5 million monthly paid members.
The acquisition was made through Funimation, a joint venture between SPE and Aniplex. Funimation is an animation distribution company that develops a popular overseas streaming service, FunimationNow, that delivers animation works. Through this acquisition, it has become a company with two huge platforms: Funimation and Crunchyroll.
The animation market is still growing rapidly. Streaming business is also seeing a surge in demand under the COVID-19 disaster. It is noteworthy that Sony will develop services using two giant animation platforms in the future. Related information can be found here.
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