Akatsuki announced it has entered a capital and business alliance with Koei Tecmo and Sony, and an allotment of stocks were given to both of the companies. This agreement will allow Akatsuki to continue growing in the games and comics markets as a multimedia company.
Through this new agreement, Sony will receive 1.4 million shares in Akatsuki, and Koei Tecmo will receive 1.13 million shares in the company as well. Sony will be a 9.78% Akatsuki shareholder alongside Koei Tecmo at 7.97%.
The latest details from the IR release may be found below.
Purpose and Aims of the Alliances
Under its mission to “entertain the world and resonate with creators,” the Company is pivoting on games and has entered the Comics business, aiming to be a company that utilizes digital content to compete globally in the long term.
Since its founding, the Company has been expanding its core games business in Japan and overseas with a focus on mobile gaming. With recent market changes and improvements in handset performance, and presuming business expansion outside of Japan, an increasing number of game titles are being simultaneously developed for use not only with mobile devices but also for use on PCs and home consoles. The mobile gaming market is on the cusp of evolution into a new market of multi-device, multi-language “live gaming.”
With the above market changes in mind, the Company announced in its “Explanatory Materials for Management Strategy Briefing” in August 2022 that it will invest 20 billion yen in strengthening its game development system and, aiming for more agile and dynamic capital policies as a venture company in the future, the Company conducted a buyback of treasury shares, as noted in its “Announcement of Acquisition of Treasury Shares and Purchase of Treasury Shares through the Off-auction Share Repurchase Trading System (ToSTNeT-3)” of May 15, 2023. Additionally, we have been actively investing in new products, technologies, and human resources, and our consolidated subsidiary Akatsuki Games Inc. (“Akatsuki Games”) held its “Akatsuki Games Now” event for new products in August 2023.
Going forward, with the goals of further strengthening our game development capabilities, improving our overseas marketing skills, and creating new content through collaboration, the Company had decided to enter into capital and business alliances with Sony Group and Koei Tecmo Holdings by the disposition of the Company’s treasury shares, and had agreed as written in “Details of Business Alliances”.
Details of Business Alliances
- Sony Group – The Company will further build relationships with Sony Group and its affiliates to create new business opportunities, aiming to cooperate in overseas market expansion for mobile games, both those currently under development and those to be developed in the future, as well as to collaborate with co-production and development of new IP and content.
- Koei Tecmo Holdings – In addition to game projects already underway, the Company will further build relationships with Koei Tecmo Holdings in the following three areas to create new business opportunities in the future:
- Collaboration in development and operation of multi-device next-generation live-ops games
- Collaboration on global expansion, marketing, and publishing of live-ops games
- Collaboration on new IP, content and services
