Madman sold anime division for AU$35 million

The Australian Financial Review newspaper reported on Wednesday that Madman Media Group, the parent company of Australian film distributor Madman Entertainment , has sold the anime division of its business to Sony 's media production subsidiary Aniplex in an AU$35 million (about US$25 million) deal.

Aniplex previously invested in Madman Entertainment in February 2018, and has held a minority interest in the company since.

Sony Pictures Television Networks had acquired a majority stake in North American distributor Funimation in 2017, and the latter has since ended its content-sharing partnership with Crunchyroll as of last November, and signed a first-look streaming deal with Hulu .

Madman operates in Australia and New Zealand and distributes videos across both countries. Tim Anderson and Paul Wiegard established the company in 1996. Funtastic Limited acquired the company in 2006, but decided to sell the company in 2014. Anderson and Weigard bought back the company from Funtastic Limited later that year, and the company remains independent.

Madman also runs the AnimeLab streaming website, which it launched in 2014. The company launched the Madman Anime Festival in 2016, and it has hosted the event Melbourne, Perth, and Brisbane. Madman hosted the festival last year in all three cities.

Source: Australian Financial Review (Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald) via @DoctorDazza, @lawrencebrenner