I'm sure there are links with sources & whatnot over at animeondvd. But around the time ADV licensed (and thankfully lost) Gurren Lagann, they way over exerted their funds, Newtype USA just died, who know's how much money they blew consulting Weta digital on the Eva movie project a couple years ago, and the Japanese backer they pulled in said "uh huh, you guys are teh suck at banking) and left with whatever licenses they paid for. Those licenses got split between Funimation & Bandai btw.
Next thing you know, "Sentai Filmworks" pops up, and all the writing was on the wall.