Universal Pictures International Purchases Geneon Entertainment Stake from Dentsu

In a press release (PDF) this morning, advertising conglomerate Dentsu has announced that it has begun the sale of the Geneon Entertainment division to NBC-Universal owned Universal Pictures International, with the intent to merge it into the Universal Pictures Japan division in February of next year under a new corporate entity and name.

The transaction was begun earlier on November 7th with the beginning of the transfer of shares, with the expected completion of the transaction at the end of the month. Universal Pictures International will receive 80.1% of Dentsu’s share in Geneon with the former retaining 19.9% in the new company.  The shares will then be transferred to Universal Pictures Japan, which will absorb all relevant Geneon Entertainment assets, such as licenses, catalog titles, production capabilities, and every international agreement signed prior to the purchase.

The purpose of the merger stems from Dentsu’s desire to streamline its operations and return focus to its core businesses while minimizing perceived liabilities as the the company was seeking to sell Geneon as far back as June of this year. Geneon and Universal Pictures Japan struck a distribution agreement in March of this year for the distribution of many of its animated titles and live-action titles on DVD, with Geneon planning Blu-Ray releases for every one of their current Fall season shows in Japan.

The Hollywood entertainment trade paper Variety reports that both Universal Japan and Dentsu will maintain a collaborative relationship in order to distribute all related home video content and develop a slate of local films and other content with the new entity. 

The Japanese enthusiast site AVWatch has also reported (Japanese) on the merger with quotes from Geneon Entertainment executive Eddie Cunningham expressing hope that the newly acquired properties would be broadcast on NBC/Universal networks around the world at some point.