Krafton Acquires ADK Group, This Time Specialized In Planning And Production Of Japanese Animation
Jun 24, 2025
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Krafton, which is actively conducting mergers and acquisitions in the global market, has started to secure Japanese animation IP this time.
Krafton announced on the 24th that it has made strategic investments in Japan's ADK Group and has begun global cooperation. Through this, we plan to respond to the growth of the global animation industry and jointly expand our respective core business areas, Krafton said.
Krafton voted to acquire BCJ-31, a subsidiary of Bain Capital Japan, through its board of directors. The acquisition amount is 75 billion yen (about 710.3 billion won). BCJ-31 is the parent company of ADK Holdings, which has major subsidiaries under ADK Group, and through this transaction, ADK Group (hereinafter referred to as ADK) will become a consolidated affiliate of Krafton.
ADK is one of Japan's three largest comprehensive advertising companies and has accumulated professional capabilities in creative planning, content planning, production, advertising, and marketing, including more than 300 animation production committees, Krafton said. As of last year, annual transactions amounted to about 348 billion yen.
Krafton is seeking new synergy opportunities for game-oriented IP expansion through contact with the rapidly growing global animation market, and the acquisition is part of a mid- to long-term strategy to expand the possibility of collaboration between animation and games and strengthen the foundation of its content and media business in Japan as an extension of this business direction.
In particular, ADK's animation planning and production capabilities and Krafton's global game development and service experience will be combined to jointly create new added values that have not been tried before while maintaining the identity of both companies. He also stressed that ADK plans to link Krafton's game business capabilities to Japan's advertising and media infrastructure, which has been accumulated for about 70 years, to consider long-term expansion opportunities to the Japanese content industry as a whole.
"ADK is a partner with high expertise and execution capabilities ranging from animation planning and production, advertising, marketing, and media management based on a deep understanding of the Japanese content industry as a whole," said Kim Chang-han, CEO of Krafton. "Krafton wants to continue to discover various points of contact between games and animation through collaboration with ADK, and to create new opportunities for the global content business by organically combining the strengths of both companies."
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
