Navarre Corporation was an American public distribution and publishing company founded in 1983 by Eric H. Paulson. The company was headquartered in

New Hope, Minnesota New Hope is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States and a suburb of Minneapolis. The population was 20,339 at the 2010 census and 20,907 at the 2019 estimate. History New Hope was originally a farming community called Hope in Cryst ...

. Navarre owned three subsidiary companies: a software publisher, Encore, Inc., a distributor, Navarre Entertainment Media and Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

distributor,

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

which was acquired in 2005 and divested in 2011 to founder

Gen Fukunaga is a Japanese–born American engineer and businessman. He established Funimation, a company that distributes anime in Canada and the United States. He served as its president and chairman until 2019, where he stepped down. As of October 2011, F ...

. The company also offered niche films through BCI Home Entertainment a.k.a. BCI Eclipse Company (formerly Brentwood), but this division was closed in a 2013 re-structuring due to the recession, after two years of being unprofitable.

History

The company was founded in 1983 by Eric Paulson. On November 21, 1989, Lieberman Enterprises (a subsidiary of

LIVE Entertainment Artisan Entertainment (formerly known as U.S.A. Home Video, International Video Entertainment (IVE) and LIVE Entertainment) was an American film studio and home video company. It was considered one of the largest mini-major film studios until ...

) announced that it would acquire Navarre for an undisclosed price. The sale was completed on January 22, 1990, merging Navarre's computer products division into Lieberman. In 1991, the company was reacquired by Paulson and spun-off from Lieberman after

Troy, Michigan Troy is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, United States. Its population was 87,294 at the 2020 U.S. census, making Troy the most populous city in the county and the 13th most-populous municipality in the state. Troy is a northern suburb of Me ...

-based Handleman Company acquired the company for $100 million. In 1993, Navarre Corporation started manufacturing software products, made its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

(IPO) and becoming a publicly-traded company. In June 1994, Navarre and

Digital Café Digital Café was a new media company founded in early 1991 by Dean Hyers (creative director) and Mike Koenigs (technical director, foley, web development). It operated for 7 years independently in St. Paul before being acquired in October 1998 as ...

announced the formation of Digital Entertainment, a company that develops

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both com ...

s. In 1996, Navarre acquired a 50% stake in Net Radio, a company that produces radio programming to the Internet. In September 1996, Navarre invested former CBS Records

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

Walter Yetnikoff's

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the pr ...

Velvel Records. In August 2002, Navarre acquired

Encore An encore is an additional performance given by performers after the planned show has ended, usually in response to extended applause from the audience.Lalange Cochrane, in ''Oxford Companion to Music'', Alison Latham, ed., Oxford University Pre ...

, a company that develops and publishes computer software. On November 5, 2003, Navarre announced that it would acquire BCI Eclipse (formerly known as Brentwood Communications), a

home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...

distributor for $15 million and BCI Eclipse later ceased its operations on December 17, 2008. In June 2005, Navarre determined that its financial statements for 2004, and the first and third quarter of 2005, should be restated, because expenses related to the incentive-based deferred compensation of the company's CEO was recorded in the wrong quarter. In 2016, Navarre Distribution relaunched to provide audio and film distribution to labels and artist globally.

Acquisition and sale of Funimation

On January 11, 2005, Navarre announced that it would acquire Funimation Productions, an anime licensing company. The sale was completed on May 11, 2005. After the sale, Funimation Productions changed its name to Funimation Entertainment. Then, in April 2011, Navarre sold Funimation to a group of investors including Funimation co-founder

Speed Commerce and aftermath

On September 28, 2008, Dallas-based SpeedFC agreed to merge with Navarre for $50 million in cash and stock. The merger closed in 2013; the company changed their name from Navarre Corporation to Speed Commerce afterward. On July 9, 2014, Syracuse, NY based Wynit Distribution LLC acquired the majority of the assets of Navarre Distribution Services and Encore from Speed Commerce. Since then, the Navarre name has been retired. Funimation, which was sold by Navarre in 2011, was later acquired by the Japanese conglomerate

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

in 2017 by owning a 95% stake in the company through its

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainme ...

division and later reorganized through a joint venture between

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acq ...

and

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is oper ...

Aniplex is a Japanese anime, music production and anime licensee company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Established in September 1995, Aniplex has been involved in the production and distribution of several anime series, such as both '' Fullm ...

, but the company would be subsequently renamed to Crunchyroll, LLC after acquiring the streaming service of the same name in August 2021.

References

Publishing companies of the United States Publishing companies established in 1983 Defunct companies based in Minnesota 1983 establishments in Minnesota Publishing companies disestablished in 2013 2013 disestablishments in Minnesota 1993 initial public offerings {{US-media-company-stub