Just months later launch of a tent pole service that Crunchyroll shows as one of its premium offerings, AT&T may have sold after a sale of the anime streaming property.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Information report Wednesday that AT&T is looking to sell Crunchyroll to Sony – a deal that is thought to be held by AT & T’s exceptionally high asking price of $ 1.5 billion. The report follows earlier article from the information published in May that such a sale was explored. It’s a deal that makes sense to some degree, given AT & T’s astronomical debt tax. But it’s unclear what this would mean for its Crown Jewel, the HBO Max service that launched it in May – which requires Crunchyroll for some content.
Both AT&T and Sony declined to comment on the rumored deal when they were reached for comment Wednesday.
According to the information, AT&T is looking to load non-core properties to offset some of its substantial debt. In June, CNBC reported that AT&T was considering a sale of its Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment gaming division, possibly for as much as $ 4 billion. The information put the company’s debt at about $ 151 billion. Everything helps, I think.
Like another standalone streaming feature that is poorly bundled in HBO Max’s too much service, DC Universe, Crunchyroll is offered as a service by itself. Really confusing, you can pay $ 8 a month for just the anime stuff, if you can get it some of Crunchyroll via the $ 15 per month HBO Max. Sure, HBO Max will still have a lot of other content left over from WarnerMedia – even other anime – and it’s probably safe to assume that the property is axed from the brand identity crisis that is HBO Max will not kill a significant number of its general subscribers.
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But it seems strange that a company would support Crunchyroll as an advantage of the service to cut it altogether just months after launch. I’m not a CEO, but it does not take a wizard to find out that this does not look particularly great for AT&T, especially on the heels of the carnage at DC Comics. By all indications, this is a company in crisis mode.
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