AT&T Buys Crunchyroll Owner

AT&T, who recently took over Time Warner, has now acquired Otter Media, the parent company of Crunchyroll.

John Stankey, chief executive of WarnerMedia, as Time Warner has been renamed, will oversee Otter. Mr. Stankey said in a statement that AT&T planned to “harness Otter’s expertise” to strengthen its own digital assets. He did not say which ones, but Warner Bros. owns niche video companies like Machinima, which focuses on gamers, and Boomerang.

And DC Universe.

In addition to Crunchyroll, Otter owns Fullscreen, a studio and advertising agency for YouTube stars … and Rooster Teeth, which makes video aimed at gamers, operates a streaming channel, and has a growing events business.

Otter’s streaming services have more than two million paying subscribers in total, on par with CBS All Access.

The definition of success has really changed over the years.

“You’ll see a good amount of cross pollination, where some of that really wonderful Warner intellectual property and content will find its way into the businesses that are part of the Otter portfolio today,” said [Tony Goncalves, Otter’s chief executive].

That will be interesting to see, how the companies are combined.