News
Navarre Evaluates Sale of Funimation in Current Quarter
posted on by Egan Loo
Navarre Corporation has announced on Thursday that it has hired the investment bank Houlihan Lokey "to assist it in structuring and negotiating a potential transaction for the sale" of its Funimation anime arm. The plans may not result in an actual sale.
Navarre emphasized that "Funimation's recent results have generally met expectations," but CEO Cary L. Deacon said that Navarre will be focusing its strategy on its distribution and software publishing businesses. According to Navarre, Funimation plans to grow its business through "co-productions of original anime content, social networks and digital broadcasting," and those plans are best executed with another owner that has assets or expertise in those areas.
If the sale goes through, Navarre plans to present Funimation as a "discontinued operation" — a financial term for a segment of a company that has been separated from the rest of the company, or has been approved for separation — starting in the first quarter of the 2011 fiscal year. The first quarter runs until the end of June. Navarre will discuss its strategy in more detail during its June 4 year-end conference call for the 2010 fiscal year.
[Via AnimeonDVD.com]
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