Sony's talks to acquire the anime streaming service Crunchyroll from WarnerMedia have entered final negotiations.
If approved, Sony would pay more than $957 million for the service, which currently has 70 million subscribers across the globe and over 1,000 titles. This would also make it the parent company of yet another anime behemoth after acquiring Funimation in 2017.
A description on the Crunchyroll website calls the streaming platform "the world’s most popular anime brand, connects anime and manga fans in more than 200 countries and territories with 360-degree experiences."
Crunchyroll was founded in 2006 and offers not only 1,000 anime shows but hundreds of East Asian dramas and 50 manga titles. In 2016, it formed a partnership with the aforementioned Funimation to offer streaming of select content between the two platforms. However, the partnership ended in 2018 after Sony acquired Funimation and the AT&T-owned Otter Media acquired Crunchyroll. The next year, Crunchyroll became a part of WanrerMedia after a reorganization resulting from AT&T's purchase of Warner Bros.
Most recently, Crunchyroll partnered with Sentai Filmworks to distribute such titles as Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma: The Fourth Plate and World Trigger.
Source: Nikkei Asia
