AT&T To Sell Crunchyroll Anime Business To Sony's Funimation For $1.175 Bln

(RTTNews) - AT&T Inc. (T) agreed to sell its Crunchyroll anime business to Funimation Global Group, a joint venture of Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment, for $1.175 billion.

AT&T was reportedly considering to sell the anime business in order to pay down its significant debt.

Crunchyroll is a premier anime direct-to-consumer service within AT&T's WarnerMedia segment with more than 3 million SVOD subscribers. It serves 90 million registered users across more than 200 countries and territories offering AVOD, mobile games, manga, events merchandise and distribution, AT&T said in a statement.

On Tuesday, AT&T's chief executive officer John Stankey said he anticipates the company in 2021 would generate free cash flow in the $26 billion range, exclusive of proceeds from potential asset divestitures, and gross capital investment in the $21 billion range. He is committed to sustaining the dividend and investing AT&T's capital effectively to manage down the company's debt structure over time.