{"id":50393,"date":"2025-07-24T16:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=50393"},"modified":"2025-07-24T16:53:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T07:53:14","slug":"sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony acquires 2.5% stake in Bandai Namco in new anime-focused strategic partnership\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bandai Namco Holdings and Sony Group announced on July 24 that they have entered a strategic business partnership. As part of the deal, Sony has agreed with existing shareholders to acquire 16 million shares (a 2.5% stake) in Bandai Namco for approximately $464 million (source: <a href=\"https:\/\/gamebiz.jp\/news\/409641\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GameBiz)<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The primary focus of the partnership is expanding global fan communities of anime, manga and other IPs, particularly in the rapidly growing anime market. The two entertainment giants have previously collaborated in areas such as games, anime, and music, but through the acquisition, they intend to broaden the scope of this partnership while further leveraging each other\u2019s strong suits.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Specifically, this will involve using Sony\u2019s infrastructure for anime production, distribution, and merchandising to promote Bandai Namco\u2019s IPs, as well as co-developing and co-promoting anime and manga. In addition, Bandai and Sony will work together on supporting creators through \u201cthe joint development and operation of technologies and services in the entertainment sector.\u201d They also aim to explore joint investment and business partnerships in areas focused on fan engagement, and are considering cooperating on experiential entertainment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This partnership comes a few months following news of Sony <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-to-become-kadokawa-largest-shareholder-in-new-co-operative-business-alliance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">becoming a major shareholder of Kadokawa<\/a> \u2013 another major player when it comes to anime and IP production. These partnerships, along with the acquisitions of anime production studios, are no doubt part of Sony&#8217;s strategic goal of <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-to-boost-its-anime-business-as-global-demand-soars\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">making anime a cornerstone of its entertainment business<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sony has acquired 16 million shares of Bandai Namco holdings for approximately $464 million dollars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":50395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-50393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sony acquires 2.5% stake in Bandai Namco in new anime-focused strategic partnership\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sony has acquired 16 million shares of Bandai Namco holdings for approximately $464 million dollars.\" \/>\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\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sony acquires 2.5% stake in Bandai Namco in new anime-focused strategic partnership\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sony has acquired 16 million shares of Bandai Namco holdings for approximately $464 million dollars.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-24T07:43:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-24T07:53:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724-50393-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1014\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Sony acquires 2.5% stake in Bandai Namco in new anime-focused strategic partnership\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","description":"Sony has acquired 16 million shares of Bandai Namco holdings for approximately $464 million dollars.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Sony acquires 2.5% stake in Bandai Namco in new anime-focused strategic partnership\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST","og_description":"Sony has acquired 16 million shares of Bandai Namco holdings for approximately $464 million dollars.","og_url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/","og_site_name":"AUTOMATON WEST","article_published_time":"2025-07-24T07:43:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-24T07:53:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1014,"height":550,"url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724-50393-header.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Amber V","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_site":"@AUTOMATON_ENG","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Amber V","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/"},"author":{"name":"Amber V","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/fdc6517a00e35b6917ffdb02e8b574d9"},"headline":"Sony acquires 2.5% stake in Bandai Namco in new anime-focused strategic partnership\u00a0","datePublished":"2025-07-24T07:43:11+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-24T07:53:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/"},"wordCount":245,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/20250724-50393-header.jpg","keywords":["News (Japan-related)"],"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/sony-acquires-2-5-stake-in-bandai-namco-in-new-anime-focused-strategic-partnership\/","name":"Sony acquires 2.5% stake in Bandai Namco in new anime-focused strategic partnership\u00a0 - 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