ANN opened up with the executives of the Nozomi Entertainment Division following the acquisition of the anime retailer Right Stuf. Crunchyroll said that no news about Nozomi Entertainment was available at the moment. They evaluated all the rights. The company has no other updates on Right Stufs anime licensing and home video division, and reports that it’s going to be business as usual.
Right Stuf and Nozomi Entertainments Kickstarter campaign for a German-dubbed Blu-ray Disc release for the Dirty Pair 1985 television anime confirmed on Thursday that Crunchyrolls acquisition of Right Stuf includes Nozomi Entertainment extension. The Kickstarter page also revealed that the Nozomi team still snatch the project. The acquisition won’t affect your English dub or release.
Crunchyroll announced on Thursday that it has acquired anime retailer Right Stuf to expand its eCommerce service. This purchase will widen Crunchyrolls eCommerce offering with an extension to home entertainment and manga categories. The companies didn’t reveal the terms of the deal.
In the initial announcement, there wasn’t mention of Right Stufs licensing division Nozomi Entertainment. Nozomi Entertainment shared this announcement on Twitter.
Right Stuf said it is going to continue selling products of various companies, except for Erotica products. The company has introduced erotica genre content and product for a single single-handed release. All right Stuf orders will be honoured, and the website will keep its address. All 18+ erotica orders are being transferred to EroAnimeStore.com. While the original announcement was published, there was no mention of Right Stufs Critical Mass adult label.
Right Stuf said that there could be future products, features and benefits that could help in Crunchyroll. Right Stuf and Crunchyroll are continuing to operate separately for the moment.
That’s what got the name of Right Stuf founder Shawne Kleckner and the right Stuf team joining Crunchyrolls Emerging Businesses, led by Terry Li.
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP advised Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Hennepin Partners and Lathrop GPM advised Right Stuf for the transaction.
Funimation and Crunchyroll announced on March 1 that Funimation and Wakanims anime library and simulcast content have moved to Crunchyroll. Last year, Sonys Funimation Global Group acquired Crunchyroll from AT&T. The purchase price was 175 billion dollars, and the proceeds were paid in cash during closing.
Funimations home video releases become also listed under Crunchyroll.
Crunchyroll and Funimation announced the acquisition in December 2020 with a purchase price of 1,755 Mrd. dollars. The technology website The Information reported in August of 2020 that AT&T offered Crunchyroll for US$1.5 billion to Sony and that Sony had reportedly balked at the price, which effectively valued the streaming service at US$500 per subscriber. Variety reported that AT&T was buying the company multiple times as much money as Sony Pictures Entertainment. Nikkei Asia later reported that Octobre that Sony was in final negotiations for the Crunchyroll acquisition. The newspaper reported that Sony could end up spending more than 100 billion yen (957 million).
Right Stuf was founded in 1987 as a comic book store.
Right Stuf and Nozomi Entertainment announced a partnership with Funimation to stream titles in July.
Sources: E-mail correspondence, Dirty Pair Kickstarter.