Funtastic Limited announced the purchase of the Madman Group of companies in Australia for $34.5 million AUD (US$26.5 million). The deal gives the founders and joint managing directors of Madman (Tim Anderson and Paul Wiegard) $26.4 million in cash upfront and $2.7 million AUD in scrip to be held in escrow for 18 months. The purchase of Madman was effective May 1, 2006. Tim Anderson stated that there will be no change in company operations.

Funtastic has rationalised the deal as a way for them to obtain DVD rights for properties they already hold the toy rights for. Stating that in the past, DVD rights have been passed onto other companies due to their lack of experience in the field, with the other companies frequently benefiting from their Funtastics marketing initiatives.

With Madman holding 87 per cent market share in Anime within Australia, and a estimated 2.5 per cent of the Australian DVD market overall, they are considered to be the market leaders within the field, possibly enticing companies to allow Funtastic to purchase the rights to shows they would normally be denied. Also by combining Madman’s DVD knowledge with Funtastic’s toy marketing skills, they believe that Madman will be able to further explore merchandising opportunities within the Anime market.

The first announced range to come out of the acquisition will be a children’s range, labelled Mad 4 Kids.