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# Sony to buy animation streaming service Crunchyroll from AT&T for more than $1 billion

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Sony to buy animation streaming service Crunchyroll from AT&T for more than $1 billion
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Content would be removed from HBO Max once deal closes

Sony Corp. agreed to a more than $1 billion deal to buy online animation service Crunchyroll from AT&T Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter.

The deal, which could be announced as soon as Wednesday in the U.S., would bolster the already large library of Japanese animated content that Sony already owns through its rival Funimation service. Its terms require that AT&T
T,
+2.11%
take down the Crunchyroll content it has been hosting on HBO Max once the transaction closes, the person said. Some details of Sony’s
SNE,
+0.81%
pending purchase were reported in October by Nikkei News.

Crunchyroll is the latest asset that AT&T is cutting loose to trim the debt load it amassed through its five-year push into entertainment. The acquisitions of DirecTV in 2015 and Time Warner in 2018 left the telecom network operator with more than $180 billion of net debt, an amount it has whittled down in recent years.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

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