FUNimation Is Up For Sale, But Not Cheaply

Stepping into the spotlight with this kind of news, about a potential sale of FUNimation Entertainment by its parent corporation Navarre, may not have had the desired effect at first. Especially after all the recent closures and staff cuts that dented the North American anime / manga licensing industry. But as more reports and comments emerged from FUNi over the weekend, fans are assured that everything is still A-OK.

Through its official blog and again in an ANN interview with CEO Gen Fukunaga today, FUNi emphasizes that selling the company would benefit both Navarre and FUNimation. Navarre would use the capital to focus on its core business (which is mainly about software publishing and distribution, not anime), and FUNimation would partner with someone else who better knows how to manage the co-production of original anime content, social networks and digital broadcasting - which is what FUNi needs to focus on, in order to "get to the next level".

A cheap, "fire sale", however, is out of the question. Nobody is in any rush to make a quick buck (FUNimation has "generally met expectations" for Navarre), and there's also no danger of anyone from FUNi getting fired, should a buyer be found.

"The intent of any potential sale here is not going to be a fire sale. Navarre doesn't have to sell us obviously. It just seems like the appropriate strategy at this time. But if they don't get the price they want, they just won't sell us. They'll just keep us and everybody will be happy and moving along nicely.

(...) we're looking only for a sale to somebody where the company is pretty much going to stay intact in every single way. Nobody's going to be leaving here. And I mean nobody - the management team, everybody is going to be the staying here."

If a buyer is found, we should hear about it as early as this summer. But regardless of this, FUNimation marches on with its current plans for co-producing anime. What they mean by that, is to "take a famous American brand that already has a big fanbase [in the US], and then make an anime of it [with a Japanese studio]". Not unlike the way The Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight or Halo Legends came to be.

So either way, FUNi will announce their new anime co-productions in the next couple of weeks, with continued funding from Navarre for the time being. And for as long as it takes them to find a satisfying buyer.