After actively trying to oust him, activist fund Oasis Management failed to remove Kadokawa Corporation’s incumbent chief Takeshi Natsuno. The fund is the corporation’s biggest shareholder and believes Kadokawa is being mismanaged, chiefly regarding FromSoftware and its overseas publishing deals that apparently cost the company a lot of money.
That is according to Kotaku and follows up with what we wrote earlier this month regarding Oasis’ push to turn FromSoftware, and by extension Kadokawa, into a more profitable business. As per a notice released by Kadokawa, Natsuno remains the corporate chief executive and shall keep that position until at least 2027, when the next general shareholder meeting is set to take place.
As Kotaku writes, the next time the vote comes around will likely be a lot tighter, given how fast and how much Oasis Management has been investing in Kadokawa and pressuring it to change course in numerous ways. The fund seems keen on more direct management of Kadokawa’s assets, including FromSoftware, as well as intent on pivoting to full self-publishing overseas instead of maintaining partnerships with the likes of Activision and Bandai Namco.
According to IGN’s writing, Oasis Management believes that “FromSoftware must be managed with the ambition, investment, and strategic focus that an asset of its quality deserves,” though I’m having a hard time believing in the benevolence of multinational, multi-billionaire hedge funds and think this will only turn into a churning of sequels and IP re-releases instead of anything meaningful.
Either way, Kadokawa seems safe from direct influence for now, but things are likely to ramp up as time goes on and could, eventually, lead to Oasis planting its own chief of Kadokawa Corporation.
The post FromSoftware parent’s CEO survives hedge fund owners’ attempt to remove him, but there’s more pressure to come appeared first on Destructoid.
