Crunchyroll Merges with Funimation After Sony Buys it for $1.2 Billion

 It is finally happening, the famous anime streaming service Crunchyroll is getting handed over to Sony to merge into FUNimation, and here is everything you need to know about it.

AT&T’s WarnerMedia was the former owner of Crunchyroll, and according to some insights, the negotiations between the two parties ended with Sony buying the company for over $1.2 billion. Sony wishes  to merge it with their own anime streaming company, FUNimation.

As per the sources, AT&T was looking for some buyers to sell off the company while maintaining the user’s account and their details. Additionally. Sony’s FUNimation was not doing great, and finally, the two made the deal. Now FUNimation will have direct-to-consumer control over the 3 million subscribers of Crunchyroll premium and 90 million users.

Crunchyroll has gained a tremendous amount of appreciation and love from fans and media worldwide. Apart from its 90 million registered users, Crunchyroll holds shows, hosts events, seminars, and special screenings for anime premiers.

Crunchyroll started in 2006, and since then, it has achieved great success, loyal subscribers, and an ever-growing fanbase of otaku and non-otaku alike. Apart from streaming the latest and classic anime titles like Naruto and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Crunchyroll also focuses on Drama driven people, and one can find hundreds and thousands of Korean, Chinese, Thailand, and other Asian Dramas on the website and the mobile app.

Currently, Crunchyroll has over 50 online manga that caters to over 200 countries and 90 million subscribers that read, watch, and stream anime and Drama every day.

In 2016, FUNimation and Crunchyroll had a collaboration. The two firms decided to streamline content on both platforms, but after Sony took over FUNimation in 2018, the partnership was cut short. In the last two years, Sony and Crunchyroll have been planning to collaborate again. According to some sources, Crunchyroll had many debts, and to clear off those debts, the two agreed to the takeover. 

Finally, Sony approached AT&T’s WarnerMedia, and the two signed off the deal to merge Crunchyroll into FUNimation and make them one.

Conclusion

There are two routes that this new collaboration can take. The first is the lousy route where the subscriber will lose interest in Crunchyroll after it merges into FUNimation, and the second is FUNimation will gain new subscribers who were subscribed to Crunchyroll in the past.

Even if subscribers lose interest in FUNimation, there is a high possibility that Crunchyroll subscribers will continue to watch anime and Drama because, at the end of the day, content is the king. No matter who provides it, the fans will continue to watch their favorite anime shows regardless of the streaming platform.

Source :- https://enteractivationcode.a6activate.co.uk/crunchyroll-merges-with-funimation-after-sony-buys-it-for-1-2-billion/

Daisy Martin  is an avid technical blogger, a magazine contributor, a publisher of guides at mcafee.com/activate and a professional cyber security analyst. Through her writing, she aims to educate people about the dangers and threats lurking in the digital world  .