With Warner Bros. Discovery having announced that it is essentially looking for a new buyer, Sony has made it clear that the company will not be entering the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery. Talking to Nikkei Asia, Sony CEO Hiroki Totoki said that it isn’t looking to make major deals with companies part of the American film industry right now. Rather, he said that Sony is more interested in “growth markets”.
In his statement, Totoki said that acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t seem likely to lead to major gains in profitability for Sony right now. Rather, he noted that the global market is ripe for growth for more anime productions. With this, he said that Sony is more focused on “growth markets” along with focusing on “cooperative relationships that foster original works.”
“We have no desire for big [mergers and acquisitions] deals in the US film industry right now,” said Totoki. “Simply adding together the current movie studios doesn’t strike me as leading to a big gain in profitability. [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.”
“The global market for anime is just dawning right now and will continue to grow by double digits for a while. We are focused on growth markets… It’s important to have cooperative relationships that foster original works.”
When it had made its announcement, Warner Bros. Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav had noted that the decision was made to allow the company to survive in what he referred to as “today’s evolving media landscape.”
“We took the bold step of preparing to separate the Company into two distinct, leading media companies, Warner Bros. and Discovery Global, because we strongly believed this was the best path forward,” he continued.
“It’s no surprise that the significant value of our portfolio is receiving increased recognition by others in the market,” he said. “After receiving interest from multiple parties, we have initiated a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives to identify the best path forward to unlock the full value of our assets.”
While the announcement largely focused on the film and TV side of Warner Bros. Discovery, it is also worth noting that any acquisition that happens as part of this will also have a major impact on the various game development studios under the company’s banner. These include studios like Batman: Arkham series developer Rocksteady Studios, Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche Software, and Mortal Kombat and Injustice developer NetherRealm Studios.
As part of its announcement, Warner Bros. Discovery had also noted that “there can be no assurance that this process will result in the Company pursuing a transaction or other outcome.” No other announcements about this review of strategic alternatives is currently planned to come out of the company. And as is the case with any major company, quite a few of the decisions about this will come down to approval from the shareholders as well as the board of directors.
