Sony CEO Says ‘No’ To Buying Warner Bros. Discovery, Would Rather Focus On “Global Market For Anime”
In (thankfully) squashing any hopes for a Mortal Kombat vs. The Last of Us or Harley Quinn Meets Aloy, Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki has made it clear that despite the current opportunity, he has no interest acquiring the now-accepting-offers Warner Bros. Discovery.
As announced by WBD on October 27th via an official press release, while the the DC parent company was still actively pursuing “its previously announced separation of Warner Bros. and Discovery Global”, their Board of Directors had separately “initiated a review of strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value, in light of unsolicited interest the Company has received from multiple parties for both the entire company and Warner Bros. “
“Through this process, the Warner Bros. Discovery Board will evaluate a broad range of strategic options, which will include continuing to advance the Company’s planned separation to completion by mid-2026, a transaction for the entire company, or separate transactions for its Warner Bros. and/or Discovery Global businesses. As part of the review, the Company will also consider an alternative separation structure that would enable a merger of Warner Bros. and spin-off of Discovery Global to our shareholders.”
“There is no deadline or definitive timetable set for completion of the strategic alternatives review process. Other than the separation transaction that is already underway, there can be no assurance that this process will result in the Company pursuing a transaction or other outcome. Warner Bros. Discovery does not intend to make any further announcements regarding the review of strategic alternatives unless and until the Board approves a specific transaction or otherwise determines further disclosure is appropriate or necessary.”
With the American institution and its vast portfolio of TV, film, video game, and comic book IPs – not to mention its other operational holdings – now on the auction block, both fans and investors have unsurprisingly found themselves speculating as to which ‘major players’ could potentially end up as the next stewards of such notable franchises as the DC universe, The Lord of the Rings, and even Harry Potter.
To this end, during a recent interview with the aforementioned Totoki, Nikkei Asia correspondent Rei Nakafuji inquired with the CEO as to whether or not Sony was looking to get in on the WBD fire sale.
Straight-forward in his response, Totoki denied the possibility, telling his host “We have no desire for big merger and acquisition deals in the U.S. film industry right now.”
Explaining his disinterest, the CEO asserted, “Sony Pictures Entertainment isn’t a big platform company for which scale is everything, so it can create its own position even without becoming one of the top players,” before specifically identifying their anime operations – recent wins in this area include Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle (via Aniplex), Spy x Family series (via CloverWorks), the Solo Leveling adaptation (via A-1 Pictures), and the distribution of Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc – as their current priority.
“The global market for anime is just dawning right now and will continue to grow by double digits for a while,” he explained. “We are focused on growth markets.”
Wrapping up with a critique on the entire corporate strategy of ‘building content libraries via acquisition’, Totoki lamented how, “Many of the publishers that own the original works are unlisted [after the original company is bought out], and they are not easy investment targets.”
“It’s important to have cooperative relationships that foster original works,” he added.
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