Japanese Acquisition for NBCU

TOKYO, November 12:
Universal Pictures International Entertainment (UPIE) is taking a majority
stake in Dentsu-owned Geneon, a Japanese production-and-distribution outfit, in
order to boost its share of the local home-entertainment market.

Following the acquisition,
Geneon will be
merged with Universal Pictures Japan
(UPJ), a new
entity that will be 80.1-percent owned
by UPIE, with
Dentsu holding the remaining 19.9 percent. Financial agreements of the deal,
set to be completed by early next year, were not disclosed.

UPJ will market and
distribute all Universal home-entertainment content, including new releases,
library fare and TV titles .on DVD in Japan, as well as develop an expanded
slate of local content. Geneon is currently the sixth-largest DVD distributor
in Japan, offering up a catalogue of Japanese and Hollywood movies, TV series
and animated content. Geneon has had a home-entertainment partnership with
Universal since earlier this year, distributing the studio's current and
library titles and handling its manufacturing and marketing in Japan.

Eddie Cunningham, the
president of UPIE, stated: "We are delighted to announce this new joint
venture which will build upon Universal's successful distribution partnership
with Geneon and help us to establish a strong DVD distribution and local
content platform in Japan."

Taichi Fukuda, the
managing director and Japan representative for NBC Universal International,
added, "The Geneon team will strengthen our home-entertainment business in
Japan. We hope that the new combined entity will contribute to a global
expansion of Japanese content."

—By Mansha Daswani