{"id":41204,"date":"2024-12-11T14:26:58","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T05:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=41204"},"modified":"2024-12-11T14:27:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T05:27:01","slug":"kadokawas-employees-are-reportedly-optimistic-about-a-sony-buyout-because-theyre-itching-for-a-change-in-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawas-employees-are-reportedly-optimistic-about-a-sony-buyout-because-theyre-itching-for-a-change-in-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Kadokawa\u2019s employees are reportedly optimistic about a Sony buyout because they\u2019re itching for a change in leadership\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Major Japanese publisher and FromSoftware owner Kadokawa confirmed Sony Group\u2019s buyout intent on November 20, setting both the entertainment industry and stock market abuzz<\/a>. Although no decisions have been announced so far, opinions on the potential buyout have been divided.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Talking to Bunshun<\/a>, economic analyst Takahiro Suzuki offered the opinion that while Sony\u2019s entertainment sector would greatly benefit from gaining access to Kadokawa\u2019s IPs, the latter would have little to gain from the deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKadokawa 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\u2019d have to be prepared for publications that don\u2019t lead to IP creation being put under scrutiny.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Elden
Kadokawa is the owner of game developers FromSoftware and Spike Chunsoft<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Similar worries about Kadokawa\u2019s independence as a publisher have been echoed by the general public too, but what do Kadokawa\u2019s employees think about the possible acquisition? We previously reported<\/a> that the prospect of Sony and Kadokawa\u2019s anime production frameworks merging into a global anime powerhouse caused significant excitement within Kadokawa, but new statements reported by Bunshun offer yet another perspective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe people around me are thrilled at the prospect of an acquisition by Sony. That\u2019s because there\u2019s a certain number of employees who are dissatisfied with the Natsuno administration, which didn\u2019t even bother to hold a press conference after peoples\u2019 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,\u201d a veteran employee of Kadokawa comments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Natsuno administration mentioned here refers to the leadership of Kadokawa\u2019s current President and CEO Takeshi Natsuno, who was appointed in June 2021. Earlier this year, a group of hackers called BlackSuit launched a ransomware cyberattack<\/a> on Kadokawa\u2019s services, including NicoNico, one of Japan\u2019s most accessed video streaming platforms. The hackers claimed to have stolen 1.5 terabytes of data, which Kadokawa confirmed included personal information of their users and employees<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Kadokawa<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It seems that Natsuno\u2019s sluggish response during this crisis has caused significant dissatisfaction among Kadokawa\u2019s employees, to the point of his potential dismissal fueling positive sentiment towards Sony\u2019s acquisition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, former chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, who belongs to Kadokawa\u2019s founding family, was “surprised, but appeared positive” about the acquisition, according to an insider interviewed by Bunshun.\u00a0Kadokawa recently resigned from his position after being indicted in an Olympic bribery case, which no doubt also shook up the company’s administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outcome of Sony and Kadokawa’s M&A negotiations remains to be seen, although some experts say that Sony could potentially back out<\/a> if the deal proved too expensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Statements by Kadokawa employees offer a new perspective on the publisher’s potential acquisition by Sony Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":40531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-41204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nKadokawa\u2019s employees are reportedly optimistic about a Sony buyout because they\u2019re itching for a change in leadership\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Statements by Kadokawa employees offer a new perspective on the publisher's potential acquisition by Sony Group.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/kadokawas-employees-are-reportedly-optimistic-about-a-sony-buyout-because-theyre-itching-for-a-change-in-leadership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kadokawa\u2019s employees are reportedly optimistic about a Sony buyout because they\u2019re itching for a change in leadership\u00a0 - 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