Latham & Watkins advises Sony Pictures on Funimation Global Group’s Crunchyroll Acquisition Deal

Latham & Watkins advised Sony Pictures on its agreement for Sony’s Funimation Global Group LLC to acquire AT&T Inc.’s Crunchyroll anime business. Funimation is a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.’s subsidiary, Aniplex Inc. The purchase price for the transaction is $1.175 billion subject to customary working capital and other adjustments. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

Latham served as transaction counsel with a corporate deal team led by New York partner Thomas Christopher and Los Angeles partner Alex Voxman with associates Andrew Clark, Jennifer Wong, Eduard Grigoryan, and Nick Goshgarian. Advice was also provided on benefits and compensation matters by Bay Area partner Julie Crisp and associate Rachel Narowski; on tax matters by Los Angeles partner Larry Stein with associate Brian Rogers; on intellectual property matters by Los Angeles partner Ghaith Mahmood with associate Jordan Naftalis; on entertainment and media matters by Century City associates Kendall Johnson, Adam Raichilson, Omeed Anvar, Emma Pianta, and Jordan Naftalis; on data privacy and security matters by Bay Area counsel Robert Blamires with associates Sam Maerz-Boening, Danielle van der Merwe, and Irina Vasile; on sanctions matters by Washington D.C. partner Les Carnegie with associates Andrew Galdes and Jessie Michelin; on anticorruption matters by Los Angeles counsel Katherine Sawyer; on insurance matters by Los Angeles partner Drew Levin with associate Harrison White; on Japanese corporate matters by Tokyo partner Hiroki Kobayashi with associate Takaki Sato; on German corporate matters by Hamburg associates Jacob Ahme and Philipp Thomssen; and on French corporate matters by Paris associate Mayssa Sader.