GONG Separates, Re-Buys Anime Assets
So I came across this article on a London-based investing site announcing that Ludorum PLC, the parent company of Gong (which airs dubbed anime online in a variety of locations including its own site), has sold its anime assets to Shinjuku Media Ltd., a new company formed by former Gong employees.
The article was a little bit confusing because it said that Ludorum sold the anime licenses to Shinjuku, but it read as though Gong was still a part of Ludorum. I sent off an e-mail to Ludorum asking what, if any, effect this will have on Gong and received a response from Benoit Runel, who is now a CEO of Shinjuku Media along with Andre de Semlyen.
In his e-mail he states that they founded Gong and have re-purchased all of Gong’s assets from Ludorum, and that Shinjuku Media will continue to operate Gong directly. The move is hopefully going to accelerate the company’s development. The full text of the e-mail is after the jump, if you’re interested. The short of it is that Gong will continue to exist more or less as it was, but better.
Dear Gia,
Folowing your email to Ludorum I would like to give you the latest info regarding Gong and its future developments.Andre de Semlyen and I are the creators and founders of Gong. We have yesterday repurchased the assets of Gong ltd from Ludorum PLC who brought the original seed money into this project.
Gong will be operated from now on directly under our control with offices based in London and Paris. This new situation enables us to accelerate Gong’s distribution and developments across more countries and more services.
We envisage in the first half of 2008 to enhance Gong’s means of distribution toward traditional Sat & Cable pay TV as well as IPTV in a number of territories.
Todate Gong is distributed in 42 territories and has nearly 20 broadband and mobile deals in place. By the end of 2008 Gong will double this distribution capacity, and release in other markets/regions such as Eastern Europe and Asia.We are also in discussion with Investors and Banks, seeking to raise more money to support our content acquisitions and distribution efforts.
If you need any further information or wish to talk about this in further details, don’t hesitate to contact me again by email or by phone.
All the best
Benoit Runel
Tags: gong, legal-anime-online