Okay, so there were waves made in a previous post about ADV and Geneon’s announcement of a “strategic alliance”. In David and I’s opinion, we thought this move boded ill for fans, in the long run (short term benefits abound).
Today however, these two anime giants looked each other in the eye, and for whatever reason, decided that their relationship was not to be and announced their decision in this press release:
ADV AND GENEON CALL OFF STRATEGIC ALLIANCE
HOUSTON, September 21, 2007—ADV Films, the number one producer-distributor of anime outside of Japan, today confirmed that it has withdrawn plans to distribute Geneon Entertainment’s DVDs, CDs, and other product in North America.
“We regret that we could not complete an arrangement with Geneon Entertainment,†said ADV Films co-founder and President John Ledford. “We have enormous admiration for Geneon’s line and wish them the best of luck.â€
The strategic alliance announced jointly by ADV Films and Geneon Entertainment on August 29, which was slated to take effect October 1, would have made ADV Geneon’s sole distributor in North America.
End press release
Sadly, it was reported that Geneon underwent a series of layoffs shortly after the alliance announcement. Coincidence? What happens to those employees caught between this now defunct “strategic alliance”? For now, I’m going to adopt Mochi’s approach of wait and see, since I believe there’ll be more drama unfolding sometime in the future involving these anime giants.
