It’s Happening: Comcast Is Buying DreamWorks
NBCUniversal, which is part of the mighty Comcast Corporation, announced the purchase of Dreamworks Animation today, in a major deal for the Philadelphia-based cable and entertainment conglomerate.
DreamWorks Animation is a production company that makes animated films, TV shows, live entertainment and related products. You know it from animated features like Shrek and Madagascar.
According to a statement from Comcast, DreamWorks has an equity value of about $3.8 billion, and DreamWorks stockholders will receive $41 per share. The boards of each company and the majority shareholder of DreamWorks have all approved the agreement, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The biggest personnel move to come out of this acquisition is that Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO and co-founder of DreamWorks, will become Chairman of DreamWorks New Media and a consultant to NBCUniversal. DreamWorks New Media is DreamWorks’ stake in Awesomeness TV and NOVA, two digital outlets. This will still be under the NBCUniversal umbrella, however.
The acquisition serves each company a purpose. NBCUniversal now has a much larger entertainment profile in movies, television and theme parks. Additionally, as MarketWatch points out, owning content is extremely valuable in today’s age of online streaming, and NBCUniversal now has the rights to all of DreamWorks Animation and DreamWorks Classics. DreamWorks now has a distributor for its content and does not have to worry about stocks rising and falling depending on the success of its latest movie, as Bloomberg mentioned in its report on the acquisition.
“DreamWorks Animation is a great addition to NBCUniversal,” said Steve Burke, NBCUniversal CEO in a statement. “Jeffrey Katzenberg and the DreamWorks organization have created a dynamic film brand a deep library of intellectual property. DreamWorks will help us grow our film, television, theme parks and consumer products businesses for years to come.”
Follow Matt Sheridan on Twitter.
