Abstract:
Sony Music Entertainment (SME) announced on August 28 that it has partnered with game developer GungHo Online Entertainment signed a capital and business cooperation agreement. SME will acquire more than 23% of GungHo's shares on December 30 for approximately 28.6 billion yen (approximately US$179 million), becoming its largest shareholder. The shares acquired this time came from SON, the previous largest shareholder Financial LLC.
SME is not a new face in the game industry. It owns the well-known entertainment company Aniplex, which has published works such as "Magic Night" and "Fate/Grand Order". SME has had business relationships with GungHo before, including licensing game audio and video content copyrights and joint game development projects.
This new agreement aims to expand the cooperative relationship between the two parties. In addition to jointly developing and operating GungHo's mobile, console and PC games, the two parties will also promote collaborative projects within GungHo Games and consider using SME Group's IP to develop new game projects. No specific project has been announced yet, and the details of the cooperation will be finalized in subsequent discussions.
After the acquisition is completed, SME will have a greater degree of influence on GungHo. However, the two parties confirmed in the agreement that as long as GungHo maintains its status as a listed company, SME will respect its operational autonomy as an independent listed entity.
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