Short answers, pulled from the story.
Funimation was founded on the 9th of May 1994 as FUNimation Productions by Gen Fukunaga. Fukunaga was approached by his uncle, Nagafumi Hori, a producer at Toei Company, who offered to license Dragon Ball to the United States if Fukunaga could raise the necessary capital.
Sony Pictures Television paid $143 million to acquire a controlling 95% stake in Funimation. The deal was announced on the 31st of July 2017 and closed on the 27th of October 2017 after United States Department of Justice approval.
Funimation shut down on the 2nd of April 2024. The closure was announced on the 7th of February 2024, and subscribers were given the option to migrate their account data to Crunchyroll before the shutdown date.
SimulDub is a Funimation program launched in October 2014 in which English-dubbed episodes of simulcast anime titles premiere within weeks of their original Japanese broadcast. It began with Psycho-Pass 2 and Laughing Under the Clouds, with episodes typically released three weeks to one month after their Japanese airing.
Dragon Ball Z is credited with establishing Funimation's success. After two failed attempts at first-run syndication, Cartoon Network began airing Dragon Ball Z on its Toonami programming block in 1998, where it quickly became the highest-rated show on the block and earned a large following.
The Funimation-Crunchyroll partnership, established in September 2016, ended on the 9th of November 2018 following Sony Pictures Television's acquisition of Funimation and AT&T's acquisition of Crunchyroll's parent, Otter Media. A separate dispute about international expansion was also reported as a contributing factor in ending the arrangement.