Posts Tagged “central park media”

ANN published a story yesterday about how the liquidation of Central Park Media’s assets is being conducted through MYC & Associates, a New York-based “full service auction, appraisal, liquidation, real estate brokerage & management firm dedicated to obtaining market value for bank owned and court administered assets”. In case you didn’t already know, CPM filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy in late April.

On its listing for CPM, MYC has linked to a Schedule of Assets that contains 23 pages of 547 copyrights relating to releases; two pages of trademarks including “Anime Alley”, “Anime Today”, and “Mangamusic”; office equipment and furnishings such as chairs, computers, and telephones; 12 domain names with expiration dates; a listing of “licences, franchises, and other general intangibles” consisting of four distribution agreements (Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Corporation, Consortium Book Sales & Distribution, KOCH Entertainment Distribution LLC, AD Vision) and one consignment agreement (The Right Stuf International); and a five-page consignment inventory to TRSI.

The components of the Schedule has different dates: the copyrights listing is a draft from 5/23/2006, trademarks listing is a draft from 9/29/2004, domain names from April 7th, and the consignment inventory is as of April 3rd. The distribution agreement with AD Vision was dated March 26, 2009, and was “for distribution of DVDs and related merchandise in Canada and in the United States”. Since then, AD Vision has announced that it would reissue former CPM titles such as Now and Then, Here and There, Grave of the Fireflies, MD Geist, The World of Narue, and Darkside Blues.

My rough understanding of the chapter 7 process is that CPM’s assets will be sold off and proceeds from those sales would be distributed among creditors that have filed a Proof of Claim, showing they are indeed owed money by the debtor (CPM). Even though previously licensed titles are among their assets, it seems they did not have permanent and therefore only the elements that they produced – subtitles, dubbing, and packaging – would be available for purchase. Potential buyers of any intellectual property would still have negotiate with the respective Japanese right holders in order to be able to legally distribute them in North America. (ANN’s list of properties – which at least one site has copy and pasted – includes The Slayers, which is currently being distributed by FUNimation.)

Regarding the court case itself, I decided to sign up for a PACER account so I could do some research and look at the documents that have been filed so far in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York. Judge Prudence Carter Beatty is presiding over the case, Raymond A. Bragar is representing CPM, and David R. Kittay is the trustee. The only future scheduled event is a continuance of a Meeting of Creditors (aka 341 meeting) on July 2nd.

The following are creditors that have so far filed a Proof of Claim (deadline is Sept. 1st):
Bank of America
Biblos Co., Ltd./Libre (previously had a dispute with CPM about Be Beautiful manga)
Consortium Books Sales and Distribution (has a distribution agreement)
Cushman & Wakefield, Inc. (commercial real estate firm)
Fisk Building Management
KOCH Entertainment Inc. (renamed E1 Entertainment in Jan. 2009; has a distribution agreement)
Levi Lubarsky & Feigenbaum, LLP (commercial litigation firm)
Moses & Singer (legal services firm)
NCO Financial Systems Inc.
Pittney Bowes Credit Corp.
Quebecor Printing Lebonfon (a Canadian printer)
Wells Fargo
XO Communications Services, Inc.

I also found out that there are two associated cases to CPM’s (09-12530): Binary Media Works, Inc. (09-12532) and Mangamania, Inc. (09-12533), both wholly owned subsidiaries of CPM. Binary Media Works designed some of their web pages (e.g., Grave of the Fireflies) and held some domains in their name including ufocity.com. Mangamania was the name of an online storefront that is still up, searchable, and links to TRSI listings of products.

I’ll keep tabs on this case and post updates with whatever details I come across. Expect those posts to be as dry as this one.

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Nozomi Entertainment, the licensing arm of TRSI, announced it will release the first season of ARIA the Animation (or as I like to call it, “that laid-back gondola anime”) subbed on September 30th. But while they continue to attract attention for bringing cult favorites like Victorian Romance Emma and Maria Watches Over Us to the states in season box sets, another independent licensor seems to be remaining stagnant and it’s not entirely clear how they will rise out of it.
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