[...] knew the Geneon/ADV care was clean medicine when it was prototypal declared in September. When Geneon laid hard some employees a brief instance [...]

[...] knew the Geneon/ADV deal was bad medicine when it was first announced in September. When Geneon laid off some employees a short time after [...]

[...] HOLY CRAP!!! GENEON AND ADV ARE MERGING!! (12) [...]

1. Back in 2004, there was a press release about FUNimation, Geneon, and ADV forming a joint venture “for the development and marketing of Anime”. This created a small brouhaha among some of the forums and blogs fearing the creation of a “super company”. One forum post called this “FUNeon Vision”.

Of course, the press release was rather vague on the purpose of the venture:

“The new joint venture will focus on developing high quality entertainment series primarily targeted to children and young adults, where the team can best maximize their respective resources, talent and expertise.”

The current situation’s press release is more specific about the purpose…mainly:

“From October 1st on, ADV Films will be Geneon Entertainment USA’s sole distributor.”

Still, to me, this does not necessarily spell out a merger is in the works. It may be a test balloon to see if the conditions in the marketplace are favorable for a merger. Also, there are some details which have to be worked out before a merger can take place…which brings me to…

2. Until 2006, ADV was a US owned company. Today, ADV is still primarily a US company, but in 2006 the investment group, Japan Content Investments (JCI), purchased about 20% of the company’s stock. JCI is lead by the Sojitz Corporation (a Japanese holding company). The other partners of JCI are the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) and KlockWorx, which imports and distributes films in Japan. ADV will want to make sure JCI is okay with a merger.

Geneon is another story. Geneon Entertainment Incoporated was formerly known as Pioneer Entertainment, or Pioneer LDC – Pioneer LaserDisc Company, a former subsidiary of Pioneer Corporation. In 2003, Pioneer LDC was acquired by advertising and PR firm Dentsu Incorporated. At this time Pioneer LDC was renamed Geneon Entertainment. The North American branch of Pioneer LDC was renamed Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. Since Geneon USA is part of a Japanese corporation, there would have to be some negotiating for a merger to occur.

Of course, it is quite possible that negotiations have been underway for a while now and this press release is, as I said earlier, a test balloon.

I don’t, however, like Microsoft.

Personally, I’m not too concerned. I think with the industry’s growth slowing down recently some consolidation was necessary.