Akatsuki, Inc. (the “Company”) hereby announces that it has entered into capital and business alliances agreements (the “Alliance Agreements”) with Sony Group Corporation (Head Office: Tokyo, Japan; Chairman and CEO: Kenichiro Yoshida, hereafter “Sony Group”) and with Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Kanagawa, Japan; President & CEO: Yoichi Erikawa; hereafter “Koei Tecmo Holdings”) and conducted a disposition of the Company’s treasury stock through third-party allotment (the “Share Disposition”), as resolved at the Board of Directors meeting held today.
■Purpose and Aims of the Alliances
Under its mission to “entertain the world and resonate with creators,” the Company is pivoting on games and has entered the Comics business, aiming to be a company that utilizes digital content to compete globally in the long term.
Since its founding, the Company has been expanding its core games business in Japan and overseas with a focus on mobile gaming. With recent market changes and improvements in handset performance, and presuming business expansion outside of Japan, an increasing number of game titles are being simultaneously developed for use not only with mobile devices but also for use on PCs and home consoles. The mobile gaming market is on the cusp of evolution into a new market of multi-device, multi-language “live gaming.”
With the above market changes in mind, the Company announced in its “Explanatory Materials for Management Strategy Briefing” in August 2022 that it will invest 20 billion yen in strengthening its game development system and, aiming for more agile and dynamic capital policies as a venture company in the future, the Company conducted a buyback of treasury shares, as noted in its “Announcement of Acquisition of Treasury Shares and Purchase of Treasury Shares through the Off-auction Share Repurchase Trading System (ToSTNeT-3)” of May 15, 2023. Additionally, we have been actively investing in new products, technologies, and human resources, and our consolidated subsidiary Akatsuki Games Inc. (“Akatsuki Games”) held its “Akatsuki Games Now” event for new products in August 2023. Going forward, with the goals of further strengthening our game development capabilities, improving our overseas marketing skills, and creating new content through collaboration, the Company had decided to enter into capital and business alliances with Sony Group and Koei Tecmo Holdings by the disposition of the Company’s treasury shares, and had agreed as written in “Details of Business Alliances”.
■Details of Business Alliances
①Sony Group
The Company will further build relationships with Sony Group and its affiliates to create new business opportunities, aiming to cooperate in overseas market expansion for mobile games, both those currently under development and those to be developed in the future, as well as to collaborate with co-production and development of new IP and content.
②Koei Tecmo Holdings
In addition to game projects already underway, the Company will further build relationships with Koei Tecmo Holdings in the following three areas to create new business opportunities in the future:
A) Collaboration in development and operation of multi-device next-generation live-ops games
B) Collaboration on global expansion, marketing, and publishing of live-ops games
C) Collaboration on new IP, content and services
For details of the capital and business alliance, please refer to the timely disclosure “Announcement of Capital and Business Alliance Agreement and Notice of Disposition of Treasury Shares via Third-Party Allotment,” which we disclosed today.
■Akatsuki Company Profile
Akatsuki is an entertainment company with our mission “Entertain the World and Resonate with Creators.” We aim to bring stimulating entertainment to the people of the world by leveraging our strengths in game development and game operations that incorporate a deep understanding of the world view of IP content.
| URL | https://aktsk.jp/ |
| Established | June 2010 |
| Representative | Tetsuro Koda, Representative Director and CEO |
| Address (HQ) | Oak Meguro 8F, 2-13-30 Kamiosaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo |
| Businesses | Gaming, Comics |