Sony confirms its intent to buy Japanese conglomerate Kadokawa, and its employees are thrilled to have the tech giant onboard, despite possibly losing their independence. Read on to find out why they remain optimistic about the acquisition!
Sony And Kadokawa Still In Talks
More Beneficial For Sony Than Kadokawa, Says Analyst
Sony has confirmed its intention to buyout Japanese publishing conglomerate Kadokawa, and the latter has already acknowledged this expression of intent. As talks are still ongoing, both companies have not announced any final decision as of writing, but opinions on the acquisition by the tech giant have been mixed.
Economic analyst Takahiro Suzuki shared to Weekly Bunshun that the move is more beneficial for Sony than it is for Kadokawa. From being an electronics-focused company in the past, Sony is moving towards the entertainment sector—however, creating IPs (intellectual property) is not its forte. Thus, a plausible motive in acquiring Kadokawa is to "incorporate Kadokawa’s content and strengthen it." Kadokawa has a number of hefty IPs in its library, with notable titles in both the game industry and the anime and manga industry as well. Some standout titles include popular anime Oshi no Ko and Dungeon Meshi or Delicious in Dungeon, as well as FromSoftware’s critically acclaimed Soulslike game Elden Ring.
However, this puts Kadokawa directly under Sony’s direction, losing independence in the process. As translated by Automaton West, "Kadokawa will lose its independence, and management will become stricter. If they want to keep developing their business as freely as they have until now, [the acquisition] would be a bad choice. They’d have to be prepared for publications that don’t lead to IP creation being put under scrutiny."
Kadokawa Employees Reportedly Optimistic On Acquisition
Despite Kadokawa seemingly at the receiving end of things, Kadokawa employees are reportedly happy with the acquisition should it happen. A number of employees interviewed by the Weekly Bunshun said that they have no objections to being acquired, and that there’s a positive atmosphere on the topic. If they were to be acquired, then "Why not Sony?" they stated.
This optimism also stemmed from the dissatisfaction that several employees had with the current Natsuno administration. Speaking to a veteran Kadokawa employee, they responded, "The people around me are thrilled at the prospect of an acquisition by Sony. That’s because there’s a certain number of employees who are dissatisfied with the Natsuno administration, which didn’t even bother to hold a press conference after peoples’ personal information was leaked in the cyberattack. They expect that if Sony were to acquire the company, they would get rid of the president first,"
Earlier this year in June, Kadokawa was attacked by a group of hackers called BlackSuit, who launched a ransomware cyberattack and stole over 1.5 terabytes of internal information. This data breach took internal legal documents, user-related information, and even employees’ personal information. During this crisis, current President and CEO Takeshi Natsuno failed to act well, thus causing said dissatisfaction among the employees.
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「世界のソニー」による買収協議 KADOKAWA社員のホンネは…「独立性は無くなるが…」
Automaton West
