Hyasyoda and Kaalakiota Enter Echelon Acquisition Talks?

New Caldari Prime – Hyasyoda has entered preliminary negotiations with Kaalakiota for acquisition of Echelon Entertainment, according to a story broken by The Kimotoro Report this morning. Anonymous sources claim that senior Hyasyoda and Kaalakiota executives held a meeting alongside the CEP's State Industrial Planning Summit held during the Caldari State Workers Union Day weekend.

Due to a liquidity crisis in YC115, Kaalakiota chose to sell significant Echelon Entertainment assets. In that sale, Nugoeihuvi picked up major IPs such as the Caldari Financial News channel and This Is The State program. While this sale bolstered Kaalakiota's funds long enough for the company to begin a recovery, Echelon Entertainment shares crashed and have never recovered to anywhere near their previous levels.

Hyasyoda did make some minor purchases during the YC115 asset auction but has more recently been acquiring the depressed Echelon shares in a series of low-key purchases. Financial news outlets had begun to pick up the stock purchases in reporting, and Hyasyoda spokesperson Jamille Eron went on the record ahead of the Union Day weekend to say that, "Coverage of the purchases could have driven up the stock price." In response to the report this morning, Eron declined to confirm Hyasyoda negotiations with Kaalakiota.

Stock analyst Diashi Kuriomo of the Mercantile Club commented, "Echelon Entertainment's recent market history has been rather weak. Echelon's original success was derived from niche market appeal, and that niche was loyal to individual holoseries and musical catalogs, not the Echelon brand. Executive fans of Reign of the Raata will sooner keep watching the show on NOH's channels than try a new series. Echelon also sold portions of their capital assets, including studio space and specialist holocamera equipment." A House of Records request confirmed that Echelon Entertainment has filed for intellectual property rights much less often in the past five years than in the five years prior the auctions.

Professor Faye Nicolette of the University of Caille's Media and Communications Department provided a brief analysis for the Scope: "Right now, Hyasyoda contracts out its narrative media and propaganda needs to a variety of production corporations, like several other 'Big 8' megacorporations. That type of arrangement probably reduces costs but increasingly NOH has been taking overall control of minor Caldari media corporations. That's a problem for Hyasyoda, as its corporate culture is diametrically opposed to NOH's own."

"I believe Hyasyoda's Osmon family has decided it requires a pet production company, and the remainder of Echelon's catalogue has some alignment with Hyasyoda values," Professor Nicollete continued. "Overall, a Hyasyoda buyout of what remains could well be good for Echelon Entertainment itself, as Hyasyoda is more likely to expand its product offerings into foreign markets than the traditionally patriotic Kaalakiota."