Japan’s KADOKAWA Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Kadokawa) issued a notice document on the evening of October 29, announcing the establishment of a business cooperation alliance with Tencent Holdings.According to the announcement, Tencent will invest 30 billion yen (approximately RMB 1.76 billion) to acquire 6.86% of its shares, thus becoming Kadokawa’s third largest shareholder. It is reported that this time Tencent purchased 4.86 million shares from Kadokawa at a price of 6,170 yen per share. This will be Tencent’s largest deal in Japan so far.The transaction will be carried out through SixJoy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent in Hong Kong, between November 15 and 26 this year.
Kadokawa is a well-known publishing giant in Japan. Together with Shueisha, Kodansha, and Shogakukan, it is known as the four largest publishing houses in Japan. It has considerable strength, experience and influence in animation, games and IP operations.
In terms of publishing, the Kadokawa Library under Kadokawa has“Sword Art Online”, “Magic Forbidden Book Catalog”, “Zero-Starting Life in Another World“The copyrights of well-known works that have a certain influence in the world.
In terms of film and television, Kadokawa Films under Kadokawa has produced products such as“Midnight Ring”, “Rashomon”, “Your Name”Such as excellent film and television works, Kadokawa also has many years of deep cultivation in the field of TV animation,“The Visible Child”, “A Place Farther Than the Universe”The copyrights of other works are owned by Kadokawa.
In terms of games, Kadokawa not only has a large number of novel adaptations, but also developed“Sekiro”, “Dark Soul”, “Curse of Blood”The parent company of Fromsoftware, a well-known game developer.
Kadokawa announced that this cooperation with Tencent will focus on the capital injection of Kadokawa’s animation-related industries, and will vigorously promote the adaptation of its IP into games.
As early as 2010, Tencent teamed up with Zhongnan Publishing and Media and Kadokawa to jointly establish Guangzhou Tianwen Jiaochuan Animation Co., Ltd. Tianwen Jiaochuan has now become one of the core enterprises in the field of light novels in China, and this investment may be in Tianwen On the basis of Kadokawa, further expand the commercial value of Kadokawa IP in the country.
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