Manga Entertainment sold to IDT Entertainment

[Noriko Takaya]

Well, I do not know if this has been posted, and I don't know if anyone cares, but seeing as how Manga has popped up a bit lately what with their getting rid of Gunbuster and all, I thought I'd pass this along:

IDT Entertainment Acquires Manga Entertainment; Company Gains Extensive Library of Japanese Animation Programming

NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 2004--IDT Entertainment (IDTE) today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Manga Entertainment, a film company specializing in the production, distribution and worldwide marketing of Japanese animation or "anime" for home video releases, theatrical, and television broadcast. "Anime," a form of animation developed in Japan, is derived from and styled after Japanese comic books. IDT Entertainment is a subsidiary of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT, IDT.C), a multinational carrier, telephone and technology company.

Established in 1991 in London, UK, Manga Entertainment is one of the largest distributors of Japanese "anime" outside of Asia, with rights to over 300 titles. Over the last 10 years, the company has played an important role in establishing the market for "anime" in Europe and the United States. In 2003, the worldwide market for anime, including theatrical, broadcast television and direct to consumer products was estimated at over 2 billion dollars.

"In a little more than two years IDT Entertainment has established itself as a worldwide entertainment leader," said Jim Courter, IDT's CEO. "IDT Entertainment leads the world in primetime broadcast animation programming, and is quickly emerging as a top producer of animated feature films. Now, with the acquisition of Manga Entertainment, IDT Entertainment has a foothold in the hottest genre of "anime" style projects coming out of Asia. It will allow IDT Entertainment to develop and co-produce new titles for worldwide broadcast and distribution."

Manga Entertainment gained international acclaim with its co-production of the Japanese animated sci-fi thriller "Ghost in the Shell," the first and only Japanese animated film to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Top Video Sales Chart. "Ghost in the Shell" won awards at The World Animation Festival for Best Theatrical Film and for Best Director of a Theatrical Feature Film. A new, related television series has been scheduled to air late 3rd quarter of 2004 on the Cartoon Network. In the past seven years, the US division of Manga Entertainment has released over 200 titles on DVD and VHS into U.S. retail and rental stores, with over 100 titles currently active.

"With the acquisition of Manga, IDT Entertainment instantly moves into the top rank of 'anime' distribution companies," said Morris Berger, CEO of IDT Entertainment. "'Anime', along with 3-D Computer Generated (CG) animation, is driving the worldwide growth and popularity of animation. With this acquisition we gain a library of popular titles in an important genre that will add significant strength to Anchor Bay's position in the marketplace as a leading video distribution company. IDT Entertainment is one of the few animation companies with the depth, resources and technology to develop and market properties worldwide."

IDT Entertainment, a division of IDT Corporation, is a vertically integrated entertainment concern that develops, produces and distributes proprietary and licensed entertainment content, with a particular focus on high-quality animation. IDT Entertainment is in the early stages of production on two proprietary CG animated feature films, Gene Roddenberry's Starpoint Academy and a feature yet to be named, directed by Christopher Reeve. IDT Entertainment consists primarily of the following wholly owned or controlled subsidiaries:

-- Digital Production Solutions, or DPS, is a Computer Generated (CG) animation production company. DPS's proprietary Global Animation Studio platform enables numerous animators at diverse locations to work cooperatively and simultaneously on the same animation project utilizing IDT's telecommunications infrastructure.

-- Anchor Bay Entertainment is one of the largest independent distributors of DVDs and videos to retail outlets, and has a significant presence in the children's, horror and fitness genres. Anchor Bay's library consists of over 3,500 owned or licensed titles, including the Thomas the Tank Engine series, the Halloween series and the Crunch fitness series.

-- DPS Film Roman is a leading third-party provider of television animation services and special effects. Film Roman has been the animation studio for The Simpsons, King of the Hill, and Tripping the Rift, now airing on the Sci-Fi network.

-- Mainframe Entertainment is a leading provider of CG animation for television and direct-to-video products such as the Barbie DVD collection for Mattel, Popeye and Scary Godmother.

-- DKP Effects is a 3-D animation, and special effects production company, well known for its innovative work for movies and television.

IDT Entertainment has completed several investments and joint ventures to secure access to brand name characters and content as well as distribution channels for family-friendly content. In July 2003, IDT purchased a minority equity interest in Vanguard Animation and entered into a joint venture with Vanguard to co-produce and co-own future Vanguard properties distributed in theaters, direct-to-video and on television. Vanguard Animation is a CG animated feature film company founded by John Williams, the originating producer of Shrek. Vanguard's initial production, Valiant, is the first in a series of four Vanguard-produced films to be distributed by Disney. IDT Entertainment has an equity interest in Archie Comics Entertainment as well as rights to co-develop and co-produce animated properties based upon selected Archie comics characters as well as Josie and the Pussycats and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. IDT has also entered into a joint venture with the Christian Broadcasting Network to develop and distribute family-friendly programming. IDT Entertainment also owns a minority interest in Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment. In connection with IDT Entertainment's investment in POW!, the companies agreed to co-develop and co-produce a minimum of six animation projects for Direct-to-DVD distribution and broadcast. Recently, IDT Entertainment entered into a multi-faceted development, production, and distribution agreement with Todd McFarlane Productions (TMP) to produce animated programming and merchandise based on Spawn and other TMP original intellectual properties.

Important Note: In this press release, all statements that are not purely about historical facts, including, but not limited to, those with the words "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "plan," "intend," "estimate, "target" and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. While these forward-looking statements represent IDT's current judgment of what may happen in the future, actual results may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these statements due to numerous important factors, including, but not limited to, those described in IDT's most recent report on SEC Form 10-K (under the heading "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations"), which may be revised or supplemented in subsequent reports on SEC Forms 10-Q and 8-K and other filings IDT may make with the SEC.

So there you have it. That rumor I heard about Manga getting sold off turned out to be true. Hopefully the new owners will do a better job of treating their fans as they are supposed to be treated.

[Skull Leader]

Bah, I've seen this happen before. Manga will most likely shrivel up and die... or otherwise become something it isn't (AKA move into broader video sales, not just anime). Since their sales have completely fell through the floor in the past two years I wonder how they'll manage it. Their golden goose (Ghost in the Shell) is several years old now... and "One film, a company does not make"... so it should be interesting to see what happens. I put the chances of Manga making a comeback as slim to nil though. ADV, Tokyopop, and Bandai rule the american anime scene now.

Oh well, it's been ages since Manga (Mangle) picked up a new title worth watching... at least we got Macross Plus/II, Ninja Scroll, and Wings of Honneamise out of them.

[Anubis]

And End of Eva, unfortunately. Sucks that it was them, and the resulting issues with the releases, but at least we got it finally. After they dragged their heels for two years.

I really do hope their new parent company sees how worthless they are and pulls the plug. They do unfortunately have a stake in GitS:SAC, so they'll get some survival cash from that.

[Noriko Takaya]

Hey, here's a little thought. Maybe Manga has lost their license with Gainax for the two Eva movies or it is expected to expire soon. Then ADV Films, with their upcoming remastered Evangelion DVD's can add them to the list as it was originally released in Japan.

Just a supposition, that's all.

[Anubis]

Hey, here's a little thought. Maybe Manga has lost their license with Gainax for the two Eva movies or it is expected to expire soon. Then ADV Films, with their upcoming remastered Evangelion DVD's can add them to the list as it was originally released in Japan.

Just a supposition, that's all.

I can only hope and wish that were so.

[azrael]

Hey, here's a little thought. Maybe Manga has lost their license with Gainax for the two Eva movies or it is expected to expire soon. Then ADV Films, with their upcoming remastered Evangelion DVD's can add them to the list as it was originally released in Japan.

Just a supposition, that's all.

I can only hope and wish that were so.

Even if the license expires, you still have to play the originating company's ball game. And Gainax may not be as nice this time around.

[JELEINEN]

I don't think it was ever a rumor. They'd been sold a while back, but they're just now releasing the details. Maybe this new parent company will take anime seriously, which is something Palm Films never seemed to do. Interesting that IDT also owns Anchor Bay. That company has been sitting on the license for Oshii Mamoru's Angel's Egg for years now. Maybe we'll finally see a US release of it.

[Blaine23]

The best thing that could happen is if Manga began operating like (or under) IDT's other company Anchor Bay.

They've managed to release great niche-market DVDs for quite some time - titles that other companies would not have released or released without tons of cool extras.

[Anubis]

Hey, here's a little thought. Maybe Manga has lost their license with Gainax for the two Eva movies or it is expected to expire soon. Then ADV Films, with their upcoming remastered Evangelion DVD's can add them to the list as it was originally released in Japan.

Just a supposition, that's all.

I can only hope and wish that were so.

Even if the license expires, you still have to play the originating company's ball game. And Gainax may not be as nice this time around.

From what I read, Gainax was a bitch regarding End of Eva the first time too, and wanted excessive money for the license when ADV looked into it previously years ago.

[Blaine23]

From what I read, Gainax was a bitch regarding End of Eva the first time too, and wanted excessive money for the license when ADV looked into it previously years ago.

I heard that too... yet, ADV and Gainax seem to be pretty chummy with ADV having released the Director's Cut episodes (which supposedly Gainax wanted too much for) and now they're getting ready to release the Renewal versions... so it doesn't seem that bad now.

But nobody knows how long Manga's rights to the movies will last anyway.

We can all just breathe a little easier knowing that at least Manga wasn't bought by Harmony Gold... I'd vomit if I thought HG somehow got ahold of Macross Plus rights.

[Angel's Fury]

We can all just breathe a little easier knowing that at least Manga wasn't bought by Harmony Gold...

Indeed!!!

[Duke Togo]

So, is there any Gunbuster news to go along with this? I just showed the original OAV to my fiancee a few days ago, and she loved it. My old US Renditions tapes are getting a bit worn, though. We need this on DVD!

[Noriko Takaya]

So, is there any Gunbuster news to go along with this? I just showed the original OAV to my fiancee a few days ago, and she loved it. My old US Renditions tapes are getting a bit worn, though. We need this on DVD!

What? Other than a cheesy looking sequel? Gunbuster was removed from Manga's catalogue. You won't find it anywhere on their updated site. You will find a shitty version of Dangaioh as far as older anime goes. And a badly subbed version at that.

I say we get a mob together with ropes, torches, and pitchforks and start a protest in front of one of the major anime distributors here in the US (preferably AnimEigo) and demand our Gunbuster DVD with loads of extras, character and mecha art, histories, trivia, interviews, and of course, the two new science lessons. Oh yeah, there would have to be a newly translated script for this anime. You don't know how much it bugs me to hear Noriko scream "Oneesama!" and see it translated as Kazumi.

Who's with me?

Edited May 15, 2004 by Noriko Takaya

[Anubis]

So, is there any Gunbuster news to go along with this? I just showed the original OAV to my fiancee a few days ago, and she loved it. My old US Renditions tapes are getting a bit worn, though. We need this on DVD!

What? Other than a cheesy looking sequel? Gunbuster was removed from Manga's catalogue. You won't find it anywhere on their updated site. You will find a shitty version of Dangaioh as far as older anime goes. And a badly subbed version at that.

I say we get a mob together with ropes, torches, and pitchforks and start a protest in front of one of the major anime distributors here in the US (preferably AnimEigo) and demand our Gunbuster DVD with loads of extras, character and mecha art, histories, trivia, interviews, and of course, the two new science lessons. Oh yeah, there would have to be a newly translated script for this anime. You don't know how much it bugs me to hear Noriko scream "Oneesama!" and see it translated as Kazumi.

Who's with me?

Anyone else picking up Gunbuster is a good thing. M+ and End of Eva as well, so we can have proper versions of the M+ movie w/ a proper transfer and a non-buggy End of Eva. WoH deserves a new home too, I could never bring myself to buy Manga's disc of it.

I'm still amazed ROD came out intact. Haven't bought New Dominion Tank Police or Orguss 02 yet.

[Mislovrit]

Has anyone seen the original Japanese version of New Dominion Tank Police? I like to know if it is as blatantly anti-gun like the dub is before wasting my money on it.