CEO Kerry Deacon described Geneon USA 's recent pullback from North American anime distribution as possibly beneficial to his company's anime subsidiary, Funimation , during a November 8 conference call on Navarre's fiscal year 2008 second quarter results. He said Geneon's pullback "could be positive to our position in the marketplace, both from a sales and a content acquisition basis." He specifically cited Sailor Moon , Hellsing , and Black Lagoon as strong former Geneon titles with uncertain futures. Source: ICv2 2007-11-09 12:08 EST
The onetime anime distribution company Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. has notified its retail customers that it will cease "the sales of DVDs and all related distribution and marketing operations as of 5 p.m. on Friday, September 28, 2007." The deadline for ordering all Geneon USA products is that time and date, and only orders for "catalog products in inventory or new releases with a street date" of November 6 or earlier will be accepted. Any outstanding retail orders will ship as soon as stock is available. No more returns will be accepted after 5:00 p.m. on November 30, and new orders after September 21 cannot be returned at all. The letter to retailers also says that "payables to Geneon remain unchanged."
The letter does not address the issue of the future availability of titles, nor does it discuss Geneon USA's future production plans.
The Geneon USA letter to retailer cites the termination of the proposed sales and distribution alliance with A.D. Vision , Inc. as the reason for the changes. Geneon USA had laid off much of its own sales and marketing teams earlier this month. Geneon USA's parent company, the Japanese advertising firm Dentsu Inc. , said that "from October 1, 2007, Geneon USA will focus mainly on management of its works portfolio."