London - SoftBank agreed to buy DramaFever, which offers Korean TV programmes online for English-language viewers, adding to the Japanese carrier’s spate of online content acquisitions.
DramaFever, which had raised $12-million from investors including AMC Networks and SoftBank Ventures, says it’s the largest online-video distributor of international TV content, with 15 000 episodes. The site, founded in 2009, streams movies and TV shows with subtitles. Financial terms weren’t disclosed in a statement from the companies.
Tokyo-based SoftBank, run by Masayoshi Son, has been looking at acquiring access to a variety of films, TV shows and online programming for networks it controls, including Sprint in the US. The company has invested in more than 1 300 technology companies, such as a $250-million stake in Legendary Entertainment, the producer of Godzilla, and a 32 percent stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
“It’s an acquisition to stock a wide variety of content and to distribute content in South Korea to the world through SoftBank’s infrastructure,” said Satoru Kikuchi, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo. “It’s unique content that will help SoftBank differentiate itself.”
SoftBank shares rose 2.2 percent to close at 7,026 yen in Tokyo trading, paring a 24 percent loss this year.
With films and shows from more than 70 broadcasters around the world, DramaFever said it often has the rights to content online exclusively on the same day or the day after airing.
“In five short years since going live, DramaFever has built an impressive Internet-based streaming video business operating at scale,” Nikesh Arora, vice-chairman of SoftBank, said in the statement. “We look forward to helping them bring their highly popular video content to an even larger global audience.”
SoftBank said in July that Arora would join as vice-chairman and chief executive officer of newly formed SoftBank Internet & Media to help steer its global expansion.
Rajeev Misra, a former debt-trading executive at Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG who joined Fortress Investment Group LLC earlier this year, is leaving for SoftBank, three people briefed on the move have said. Misra plans to relocate to either Silicon Valley or San Francisco from London and will focus on acquisitions, the people said.
Bloomberg