Sometime around May of 2010, Navarre Corporation, the parent company of Funimation, announced they were putting the company up for sale. Today, hours ago, this sale was finalized. After being on the market for almost a year, the company was purchased by an investment group led by its founder, president and CEO Gen Fukunaga. Given what has been said on Funimation’s official blog site, the company is very excited and looking forward to building a better Funimation. Navarre will still have a part in Funi’s future, as they’ll be distributing their work.

Also taken from the press release:

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.

 Total price of the sale? $24 million. Cash.

The press release does not say if a large, metallic briefcase stuffed with neatly bundled hundred dollar bills was involved. So we’re going to err on the side of caution and assume that yes, yes, there was a briefcase stuffed with money.

Ari Rockefeller

When he is not training Pokémon and being the very best, the Master of the Written Word churns out convention, video game, anime and movie reviews like clockwork. No one is more productive and dangerous with a pen and paper (or, in this case, a keyboard).

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