According to ICv2, ADV Films has officially taken over all marketing, sales, and distribution of Geneon products. This means that while Geneon will still license and produce its own anime, ADV will be in charge of advertising, manufacturing, and selling the anime. That means, for anyone who is confused, that the companies are still separate, and Geneon still produces anime on its own, but ADV will be the ones who handle selling the anime.
Since ADV now sells Geneon's merchandise, ADV's catalog just got a whole lot bigger. With two of the biggest names in licensed anime banding together, they will stand to make considerable extra profit as a "semi-merged" company. This is, of course, a little troubling, since it is competition between companies that increases quality in their products, and with ADV and Geneon essentially not competing, that lowers the amount of competition on the market by a lot.
Anyway, I'm just a pessimist. The new plan seems like it will work well with both companies, and hopefully we will see the quality of ADV and Geneon's work improve from their already high level.
[via ICv2]
