Comcast buys Dreamworks Animation for $3.8 billion
It seems that Comcast is about to get a lot more animated with their latest acquisition of Dreamworks Animation. The animation company has seen Katzenberg at the forefront of the company’s operations since its inception, however now with this latest deal, Dreamworks Animation will become a part of Comcast’s NBCUniversal branch. The company has been responsible for many box office breaking franchises including Shrek, How To Train Your Dragon, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda as well as more recently working with Netflix to provide more series based content such as Turbo F.A.S.T.
Dreamworks Animation has been responsible for many popular animation creations
Rumours came out about a possible acquisition on Wednesday which not only made the current Dreamworks Animation stock prices soar but also put Comcast in a position to have to decline commenting on “deal rumours or speculation“. However now the agreement has been confirmed by the board of directors at both companies, selling for $3.8 billion at $41 per share. NBCUniversal do already own Illumination Entertainment and have stated they’d be making Dreamworks Animation a “sister studio” whilst remaining separate brands making separate projects. This means a much bigger animation slate for the future of NBCUniversal and many have claimed this will put them in competition with The Walt Disney Company.
Katzenberg will stay with the company but will be Chairman of the newly formed entity Dreamworks New Media which heads projects such as AwesomenessTV and NOVA, as well as also being a consultant for NBCUniveral. Dreamworks Animation’s slate remains unchanged as all the films that were scheduled to be released over the next 3 years will continue as normal.
DreamWorks Animation is a great addition to NBCUniversal. Jeffrey Katzenberg and the DreamWorks organization have created a dynamic film brand and a deep library of intellectual property. DreamWorks will help us grow our film, television, theme parks and consumer products businesses for years to come. We have enjoyed extraordinary success over the last six years in animation with the emergence of Illumination Entertainment and its brilliant team at Illumination Mac Guff studio. The prospects for our future together are tremendous. We are fortunate to have Illumination founder Chris Meledandri to help guide the growth of the DreamWorks Animation business in the future.
-Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal
What this holds for the future of Dreamworks we shall wait and see! It’s definitely going to expand Dreamworks in a way that makes them more commercially friendly, something Universal already did with Illumination Entertainment. Shares of Comcast rose to $61.46 in early trading talks while DreamWorks shares jumped 24% to $39.90.