Technology portal The Information reported that the United States Department of Justice has extended an antitrust review toward Sony's proposed purchase of AT & T's Crunchyroll service. The review will seek to determine if the agreement would put Sony on the domain of the anime streaming monopoly globally, and could delay the purchase for several months or even prevent it.
Lawyers for the Justice Department are reviewing the deal to see if it would give Japanese animation studios fewer options for distributing shows in the United States. The portal adds that the review could take six months or more, and that if the department does not approve the merger, it could sue to block the legal move.
Crunchyroll announced in December that Sony's Funimation Global Group would acquire Crunchyroll. Sony reported that the purchase price will be 1,175 million dollars, to be paid in cash at closing. The deal is still awaiting regulatory approvals and other conditions.
Nikkei Asia reported in October that Sony was in final negotiations to acquire Crunchyroll. At the time, the newspaper reported that "Sony could end up spending more than 100 billion yen (about $ 957 million)." The Information portal itself reported in August 2020 that AT&T had offered Crunchyroll to Sony for $ 1.5 billion, but that Sony "had resisted the price." A few days later, the Variety portal reported that Sony had set a ceiling of only one billion dollars for the purchase of Crunchyroll, and that AT&T was already offering the sale to the highest bidder.
Source: The Information (Josh Sisco, Jessica Toonkel)
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