It was reported on Wednesday by the newspaper Austrailian Financial Review that the anime division of Australian film distributor Madman Entertainment has been acquired by Aniplex of America for AU$35 million (estimate US$25million).
Founded in 1996 by Tim Anderson and Paul Wiegard, Madman is notable for distributing videos for Australia and New Zealand, as well as operating the anime streaming website AnimeLab which officially launched in 2014. The company has also organized their own event called Madman Anime Festival that started in 2016 and held in the cities of Brisbane, Perth, and Melbourne.
Aside from AnimeLab, Madman Entertainment also launched the dedicated subscription-based documentary streaming service DocPlay in which has over 130 titles on its launch. This services was funded by Screen Australia and is available to watch via web-browser, Chromecast, iOS, and Android.
The company was previously acquired by Funtastic Limited back in 2006 but decided to sell the company in 2014. Anderson and Wiegard bought back the company from them and since then has remained as an independent company.
Aniplex of America is a media production subsidiary of Sony. It has invested and held minority interest on Madman Entertainment since February 2018. The company had acquired a majority stake on the popular North American distributor Funimation back in 2017. The latter company officially ended its content-sharing partnership with anime streaming website Crunchyroll last November 2018 and is currently on a first-look streaming deal with streaming platform company, Hulu.