Animanga in the News: 4/5/11

Here you will find a run down of today's anime and manga news! If anything major happened the anime and manga world today, you'll find it in this post! By the way, I'm saladesu, one of the translators and global moderators of MH, and I'll be posting a post like this every day (as much as possible, anyway). Look forward to them ;)




Chapter 3 of Arakawa Hiromu's "RAIDEN-18" is now available for free on Shogakukan's webcomic reader, Club Sunday, from the 5th of April to the 6th of June. In commemoration of the release of the 3rd chapter, the first 2 chapters will also be available for a week.

"RAIDEN-18" is a series that has been running irregularly in Shogakukan's "Monthly Sunday GX". It is a comedy about a mad scientist and an artificial human named "Raiden #18" which he'd made by joining corpses together. This is a golden opportunity to read the back numbers of this series that has yet to be collected into tankoubon volumes.

In addition, Arakawa's new series "Gin no Saji Silver Spoon" will begin in issue #19 of "Weekly Shounen Sunday", which goes on sale on the 6th of April. This is her first weekly serialization, and tells a tale set in an agricultural high school in Hokkaido.

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As of this afternoon, FUNimation Entertainment is owned by an investment group led by founder, president and CEO Gen Fukunaga.

This is momentous day and we are excited about our new partners. They share our vision and will help us develop what will be the future of FUNimation. This future also includes the Navarre Corporation as they will continue to distribute our product and we look forward to working with them for years to come.

Operations will go on as normal and we will keep bringing you the best in anime and asian film!

The press release follows below.

Navarre Corporation Announces Sale of FUNimation Entertainment
Company Advances on Strategic Initiatives and Affirms Debt-Free Status at March 31, 2011

MINNEAPOLIS, Apr 4, 2011 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) — Navarre Corporation (Nasdaq:NAVR) today announced that it has sold FUNimation Entertainment for $24 million in an all cash transaction. Purchasers in the transaction are a group of entities that were newly formed by an investment group that includes Gen Fukunaga, FUNimation Entertainment’s chief executive officer, as a minority stakeholder. In connection with the sale, the Company has entered into an agreement to act as FUNimation Entertainment’s exclusive distributor in the United States on a continuing basis, and will also act as FUNimation Entertainment’s logistics and fulfillment services provider.

The transaction is a major step forward in the Company’s ongoing strategy to focus on the expansion of revenue in the distribution of new product lines, further develop the breadth of its value added services, and continue to grow its direct to consumer fulfillment services. This strategy has already resulted in a significant reduction to debt and has improved operating margins by leveraging the Company’s significant distribution and logistics expertise and considerable systems and physical assets.

“We ended fiscal 2011 debt free, prior to our receipt of the proceeds from this transaction,” said Cary L. Deacon, chief executive officer of Navarre Corporation. “With the strength of our balance sheet, Navarre will be able to deploy the funds generated from the sale of FUNimation to build or acquire new businesses and services to diversify our revenue streams that will support our long-term objectives. We will be actively seeking expansion opportunities in the distribution and online/web services area to support our direct to consumer strategies.

“We are energized by the progress we have made, and feel we are now positioned to build our businesses and services offering to support our long-term objectives and increase shareholder value,” continued Deacon.

Earlier this year, the Company had detailed the strategies that support its long-term objectives. Going forward, Navarre’s strategic initiatives include:
— Leveraging its state-of-the-art systems and logistics capabilities;
— Continuing to expand its products and services beyond digitally
downloadable goods;
— Providing back-end logistics solutions and fulfillment capabilities to
customers and clients;
— Expanding its direct-to-consumer fulfillment business;
— Enhancing the business development team to support acquiring new
services and product lines; and
— Continuing to grow the Canadian business through expanding relationships
with key Canadian retailers.

“This transaction ends a comprehensive sales process undertaken over the last year. As previously discussed, FUNimation’s future strategies and associated risks to execute them are not in line with Navarre’s strategic direction,” said Reid Porter, chief operating officer of Navarre Corporation. “Most importantly, this sale allows us to now provide even greater focus on executing against our long-term strategic objectives.”

The Company anticipates that its financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2011 will be impacted by a non-cash impairment charge resulting from a reduction in the carrying value of FUNimation’s net assets, as well as a pre-tax loss upon the sale of FUNimation. The exact amount of the impairment charge and the loss resulting from the sale of FUNimation will be determined in connection with preparing the Company’s financial statements for the 2011 fiscal year end but is currently estimated to be approximately $11 million.

As part of the sale, Navarre will remain the exclusive distributor of FUNimation products in the United States. As exclusive distributor, Navarre will leverage its more than 25-year history as a leading distributor for computer software, home entertainment media, consumer electronics and accessories. More information on the sale of FUNimation, as well as updates on the Company’s new strategic priorities, will be available in Navarre’s fiscal 2011 fourth-quarter and full-year earnings release on June 7, 2011, and subsequent conference call on June 8, 2011. Details regarding that earnings release will be provided shortly. In addition, the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission describes the FUNimation sale.

original source



Please note that there may be delays in the broadcasts or releases of certain anime and manga following the quake. You may see a list of affected publications here, here, here and here (new).



If you would like to help in finding and translating news of this nature, please contact saladesu via PM ^^ Feel free to PM me any interesting bits of anime or manga news you find floating around the internet, too.