It may not be so easy for Sony to acquire the multi-industry company that owns a majority stake in FromSoftware.

Back in November, we heard that Sony was looking to acquire Kadokawa, and this has been confirmed.After Crunchyroll and Funimation, Kadokawa would make Sony the sole leader in anime. Sony already owns 2% of Kadokawa and 14% of FromSoftware. FromSoftware is known for several games: Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Elden Ring… Meanwhile, Kadokwa owns Acquire (Danganronpa), RPG Studios and Spike Chunsoft.

Recently, it was said that Kadokawa would only agree to a deal with Sony if the company took them over completely, so their animation and gaming interests would have to come under Sony. This may be a bit more complicated for Sony, as reported by the Japanese financial publication Toyo Keizai. The total acquisition of Kadokawa would be around 640 billion yen (about $4.3 billion), which would be an exorbitant amount compared to Bungie’s acquisition in 2022.

Sony’s attempt could spark a bidding war for Kadokawa, so they may have to pay even more for it. Sony Group said earlier this year that it would invest about 1.8 trillion yen ($12 billion) to buy back the shares, but the amount could be much less because of the music rights. In June, Sony Music already spent $1.27 billion to buy Queen’s music rights.

If Sony really wants to acquire Kadokawa’s subsidiaries (including FromSoftware), it could try to do so by buying 15% of the company’s shares to make it an equity accounted subsidiary, or 50% to make it a non wholly owned subsidiary. This is going to be a tough purchase for Sony if they were to go ahead with the acquisition.

So it is an interesting time for Sony, no doubt about it.

Source: GameRant, Toyo Keizai