Kadokawa employees are reportedly in favour of a Sony buyout due to issues with current management

videogameschronicle.com:

Employees of Kadokawa are reportedly hopeful that a potential takeover by Sony is completed, due to issues with the current management at the company.

Last month it was reported that Kadokawa, the media powerhouse that owns Elden Ring developer FromSoftware among other companies, was in talks to be acquired by Sony. 

Following these reports, the company confirmed that discussions had taken place, but that no decision had been made.

Now it’s been claimed that employees within the company are keen for the acquisition to go through, largely due to management issues and a desire for a change in leadership.

Speaking to Bunshun (via Automaton), economic analyst Takahiro Suzuki said that he believes that while Sony would be obviously thrilled by acquiring the wealth of content and IP owned by Kadokawa, Kadokawa itself may have little to gain.

“Kadokawa will lose its independence, and management will become stricter,” Suzuki said.

“If they want to keep developing their business as freely as they have until now, [the acquisition] would be a bad choice. They’d have to be prepared for publications that don’t lead to IP creation being put under scrutiny.”

However, the report also claims that many inside the company are keen for Sony to take over, citing issues with current management.

“The people around me are thrilled at the prospect of an acquisition by Sony,” said an unnamed employee of Kadokawa.

“That’s because there’s a certain number of employees who are dissatisfied with the Natsuno administration, which didn’t even bother to hold a press conference after peoples’ personal information was leaked in the cyberattack. They expect that if Sony were to acquire the company, they would get rid of the president first.”