Sony has agreed to buy AT&T’s anime streaming service Crunchyroll for $1.2bn in its latest drive to expand its entertainment portfolio of video games, films and animation.
The sale would allow the US telecoms group to reduce its debt following last year’s $85bn acquisition of Time Warner, and focus its efforts on creating a streaming service, HBO Max, to rival Netflix.
The deal with Sony’s Funimation Global Group also coincides with an auction to sell AT&T’s satellite division DirecTV as part of a review of its assets.
For Sony, the purchase of Crunchyroll is part of an aggressive acquisition drive led by chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida to cement its position as a supplier of global content for films, music and games.
Its deal activity has expanded into…