Funimation, Sony's anime joint venture of Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex, agreed to buy Crunchyroll from AT&T's WarnerMedia for $1.175 billion in cash. Crunchyroll had about 3 million paying subscribers and 90 million registered users at the time; by closing, AT&T put the figures at 5 million subscribers and 120 million users. Sony said it would combine Crunchyroll with Funimation. The deal On December 9, 2020, Sony announced that Funimation Global Group, a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex, a unit of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), would buy Ellation Holdings, the company behind Crunchyroll, from AT&T's WarnerMedia. The price was $1.175 billion, payable in cash at closing and subject to the usual working-capital adjustments. About Crunchyroll Crunchyroll began in 2006 in San Francisco as a site for Asian video and became the leading anime streaming service outside Japan, offering shows soon after they air in Japan. At the announcement it had about 3 million paying subscribers and 90 million registered users in more than 200 countries. It also ran events, games, merchandise and its own productions. Approvals and timeline The deal needed US antitrust clearance. The Justice Department reviewed it for months because Sony already owned Funimation, Crunchyroll's main rival. The purchase was completed in August 2021. By then, AT&T said Crunchyroll had 5 million subscribers and 120 million registered users. After the deal Sony moved Funimation's shows to Crunchyroll and dropped the Funimation brand, creating one global anime service owned by a Japanese company. The deal fit Sony's strategy of owning the link between creators and fans, and it is one of the largest Japanese purchases of a US media company.
