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Kadokawa, Dwango Invest in Each Other to Expand Tie-Up

The major Japanese media company Kadokawa Group Holdings and the online services company Dwango announced on Thursday that they are investing in each other to expand the partnership they formed last October.

The two companies had already agreed to distribute Kadokawa's electronic books, films, anime, and other forms of media content on Dwango's services. Kadokawa Group Holdings is the parent company of the publishers Kadokawa Shoten, ASCII Media Works, Fujimi Shobo, and Enterbrain; it is also the parent company of the production company Kadokawa Pictures. Dwango is the corporate parent of Niwango, the company that runs the Nico Nico Douga video-sharing site.

As part of their expanded partnership, Dwango acquired 730,000 shares or 2.68% of Kadokawa Group Holdings for 1,716,960,000 yen (about US$21,114,000). In return, Kadokawa Group Holdings acquired 16,800 shares or 8.48% of Dwango for 3,017,280,000 yen (US$37,104,000).

Kadokawa had agreed to allow part of the content from its new "Book Walker" electronic book service to be readable on the "Niconico Viewer" sofware for electronic books.

Sources: animeanime.biz