Day in and day out, AT & T's debts don't go down. After selling buildings and parts of CNN, in addition to outsourcing DirectTV and placing Warner Bros. Games for sale for $ 4 Billion, more stuff is coming.
The bomb is on now, AT&T is in talks to sell WarnerMedia's Japanese anime streaming service Crunchyroll to Sony, according to three people familiar with the situation.
If the two sides could reach an agreement (something they are doing now), it would strengthen Sony's position in the niche market, as it has a rival anime service called Funimation.
But there is a critical point in the potential business, the price. AT&T is asking for $ 1.5 billion, a price Sony refused, people said. The price is well above recent figures for other niche streaming services, analysts said.
The lectures show the growing popularity of anime as a programming niche in the rapidly growing video streaming market.
Netflix and Amazon have been building libraries of anime shows in recent years.
Sony itself bought rival service Funimation in 2017, so a deal would give it a stronger presence in the market.
WarnerMedia's willingness to sell Crunchyroll, which contributed content to the company's new streaming service, HBO Max, and was featured in its marketing, also shows AT&T's willingness to sell valuable assets to reduce its $ 151 debt. Billion.
The information reported in early May that WarnerMedia was considering selling the Crunchyroll. But the company shelved any decision to give its new CEO Jason Kilar, who started in May, time to evaluate the business and strategy, according to others familiar with the situation.
Kilar told The Information on Friday that he was a fan of Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll was also featured in HBO Max marketing. Still, negotiations suggest that Kilar is not a big enough fan to stop a sale for a certain price.
AT&T has sought to sell non-core assets to reduce debt. Among the other businesses on the block is the Warner Bros. gaming unit. (WB Games) where this week it began to cut its staff by around 600 people out of 9,500 mainly in its Warner Bros. division. Interactive Entertainment as a whole.
Sony and WarnerMedia declined to comment.
Crunchyroll has been growing and reached three million subscribers at the end of July, paying $ 8 a month. But the price of AT&T, which translates to $ 500 per subscriber, seems high. Similar niche streaming services, such as AMC's Acorn, have been valued at nearly half that amount by analysts.
In 2017, AT&T rated Crunchyroll at a level that translated to $ 400 per subscriber, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Crunchyroll was launched in 2006. In 2013, investment firm The Chernin Group, owned by media investor Peter Chernin, bought control of the company. Otter Media, a joint venture focused on video content that Chernin formed with AT&T, later took over.
In 2018, AT&T purchased Chernin's stake in Otter Media, taking full control of the service.
When AT&T acquired full ownership of Crunchyroll in the purchase of Otter, it valued the company at $ 600 million, according to a person familiar with the matter, which resulted in $ 400 per subscriber.