Faith to Acquire Shares in CME to Become its Principal and Largest Shareholder
January, 21 2010
January 21, 2010 - Faith, Inc (hereinafter: Faith; Head Office: Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto; Representative Director /President: Hajime Hirasawa) and Columbia Music Entertainment Inc. (hereinafter CME; Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Executive Officer and Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Strauss Zelnick) hereby announces that Faith will acquire entire shareholdings owned by the current principal and largest shareholder and its affiliates RHJ International SA and Ripplewood Nippon Columbia Partners II L.P. Through this transaction, Faith will become CME’s largest shareholder and thus welcomes CME into Faith Group in building a strategic partnership together.
Hajime Hirasawa, Representative Director and President of Faith is scheduled to become Chairman and board director at the Extraordinary General Shareholders’ meeting (scheduled on April 6th, 2010) and in doing so, he will further strengthen the relationship between the two companies. For details, please refer to the accompanying filings. [Faith Filing] Notice Concerning Acquiring of Share in CME; and [CME Filing] Notice Concerning Change in Principal and Largest Shareholder and Other Affiliated Companies.
CME began its business as a phonograph production and sales company on October 1, 1910 and it will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of its establishment on October 1 of this year. From is founding, CME has created the history of music in Japan and is the oldest record label in the country. The company has strived to rapidly meet needs of the age: the first company to press records, first company to produce LP records, one of the pioneers in sales of CD format as well as placing full chaku-uta sites on all three mobile carriers. CME has and is continuing to create and release titles in extensive genres: enka/kayokyoku where the company has a large share, as well as in other genres such as J-POP, animation, education, traditional Japanese music, jazz and classical music. Recently the company has also expanded into the video game business.
Faith is a pioneer in the digital content business in Japan and was the first company to begin commercial distribution of music data (MIDI) in the Japanese market. Faith is at the cutting edge of the digital business, in which its activities extend over a wide range of fields including music, video, games, medical services, electronic money, which is conducted through its subsidiary Webmoney (Jasdaq 2167) and creation of content distribution mechanisms. Faith has also created new artist development mechanisms such as [MusicBirth+] a music program through fusing of television/internet/mobile telephones which began in fall of 2009.
Through this strategic partnership, both companies expect to see a host of business synergies as music related services as its axis of corporation, between CME and Faith in areas such as visual related business such as films and short contents, online video game business, as well as artist promotion using the internet, the creation of brand new businesses. With this, CME will make further strides forward in its endeavor to make even greater use of its wealth of music assets as well as in branding its artists and creating hit music. Also together with a variety of partners we will endeavor to expand new music business.
Using this strategic partnership as an opportunity, Faith Group will further accelerate its multi-content and multi-platform strategy aimed at creating an environment in which people can enjoy a wide range of contents when and where they want.
■ Faith, Inc..
Company Name: Faith, Inc.
Address: 566-1, Toraya-cho, Karasuma-oike sagaru, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto
Date of establishment October 9, 1992
Representative: Representative Executive Officer/President Hajime Hirasawa
Paid-in capital: 3,218,000,000
Business contents: Music distribution for mobile phone use, electronic money
■ Columbia Music Entertainment Inc.
Company Name: Columbia Music Entertainment Inc.
Address: Edomizaka Mori Bldg., 4-1-40 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Representative Executive Officer/President & COO Yasuharu Hara
Business contents: Production, advertising and sales of music software, etc., and music artist management
Paid-in capital: 1,000,000,000
URL: http://columbia.co.jp
■ For further information concerning this subject please contact:
Faith, Inc.
Kotaro Kasai, General Affairs Dept., PR/IR Group
Telephone: 03-5776-6255
FAX: 03-5776-6256
Email: kasai@faith.co.jp
Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc.
Ms. Tomoko Isawa, Chief Staff, PR/ER Group, Corp. Planning & Communication Dept.
Telephone: 03-6895-9821
Mobile phone: 090-3548-6122
Email: isawa_tomoko@columbia.co.jp