Gaga Communicationsannounced at its first board meeting of the year (Jan 25) that the $259m (Y30bn)content fund partnership between its parent company Usen Corp and DaiwaSecurities SMBC, tabled last December, is now a done deal.

The two partners and their respectivegroup companies will each contribute 50% of the 10-year fund, with Usen puttingup the initial 10% on January 31.

Contents underwritten by thefund will include films, music and other media, with an eye on both domesticand foreign investment, which Daiwa Securities is no stranger to. Gaga willoversee the movie portion of the fund.

Gaga, originally founded asa video outfit in the 1980s, later becoming a major theatrical distributor,entered the feature film production arena last year under the Gaga Films bannerin the run-up to the fund injection. A slate of features is set to both openand go into production this year.

The deal also ties in withlast week's news of Gaga's foray into exhibition, dubbed Cinema Gaga. Firstorder of business will be taking over management of two existing cinemas in Tokyo's Shibuya district with doors opening on March 11.

USEN, which bought acontrolling share of Gaga in 2004, operates a core business of cablebroadcasting and broadband internet, with group company interests in realestate, restaurants, and online shopping.