Comcast agrees to pay $3.8 billion for Dreamworks Animation

[cannastop]

2 hours ago, Jonwo said:

It's quite telling that Katzenberg been given a new role rather than remain CEO of DWA, it's likely Comcast said to him 'we want to buy DreamWorks Animation but we don't want you.' 

Maybe he'll be fired a year from now. And then he can dry his tears with his money.

[cannastop]

The average budget for Dreamworks Animation might be slashed to the Illumination level. Now it's all up to Disney's studios to make high production value animated features.

Also, the deal isn't quite final yet, but there are probably few antitrust issues with this.

[Jonwo]

19 minutes ago, cannastop said:

The average budget for Dreamworks Animation might be slashed to the Illumination level. Now it's all up to Disney's studios to make high production value animated features.

Also, the deal isn't quite final yet, but there are probably few antitrust issues with this.

 

I imagine any changes to budgets etc won't happen straight away at the earliest as Boss Baby, Larrikins, HTTYD3, Croods 2 etc are still in production. I think the Glendale studio will close and they'll keep the India and China studios but things like live entertainment, theme parks will be folded into Universal.

[cannastop]

11 minutes ago, Jonwo said:

 

I imagine any changes to budgets etc won't happen straight away at the earliest as Boss Baby, Larrikins, HTTYD3, Croods 2 etc are still in production. I think the Glendale studio will close and they'll keep the India and China studios but things like live entertainment, theme parks will be folded into Universal.

It would be utter madness to close the Glendale Studio.

 

It would give WDAS and Pixar a chance to do a hiring frenzy.

Edited April 29, 2016 by cannastop

[MinaTakla]

http://deadline.com/2016/04/comcast-dreamworks-animation-deal-analysis-jeffrey-katzenberg-1201745932/

[dudalb]

On ‎4‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 11:07 AM, Sir Tiki said:

 

The $4.1 billion number includes DreamWorks' outstanding debt that Comcast has agreed to assume.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/04/28/comcast-nbc-acquire-dreamworks-animation/83640258/

WHen you buy a company you buy both it's assets and liabilities. Comcast assuming Dreamwork's debt is SOP when acquiring a new company in any business.

[dudalb]

21 hours ago, Daniel Dylan Davis said:

 

It's pretty much a given. 

The Fox deal will remain in place until it expires unless Fox and Comcast come to an agreement to terminate it early.. When you buy a business all contracts and legally binding agreements entered into by the company you are buying remain in force.This is business 101,folks. When you buy a company you assume both it's assets and liabilities.

 

[Boxx93]

Makes sense. Universal already bought the Live Action division of DreamWorks from Disney, so everything will be In-house.

[Jonwo]

55 minutes ago, dudalb said:

The Fox deal will remain in place until it expires unless Fox and Comcast come to an agreement to terminate it early.. When you buy a business all contracts and legally binding agreements entered into by the company you are buying remain in force.This is business 101,folks. When you buy a company you assume both it's assets and liabilities.

 

 

I think Comcast will let the distribution deal continue since there is only a year left, Disney didn't start distributing Marvel films until The Avengers and they still had to pay off Paramount and give them 8% and 9% of the box office for Avengers and IM3

Edited April 29, 2016 by Jonwo

[dudalb]

3 hours ago, Jonwo said:

 

I think Comcast will let the distribution deal continue since there is only a year left, Disney didn't start distributing Marvel films until The Avengers and they still had to pay off Paramount and give them 8% and 9% of the box office for Avengers and IM3

Comcast has no  choice in the matter;they have to honor the contract with Fox. They assumed that legal obligation when they bought DreamWorks.

[Melvin Frohike]

On 4/27/2016 at 11:54 AM, cannastop said:

No, just perhaps under the same ownership. It's not like Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios combined.

 

It seems that they're going to let Meledandri decide how much involvement he wants with DWA at the top.  DWA will apparently, at least for now, retain their creative leadership, minus Katzenberg--Meledandri may assume a role like Lasseter's at Disney if he so chooses, and I think that's exactly what Universal/Comcast would like.

 

 

On 4/28/2016 at 10:45 AM, BK007 said:

Not that I like Katz, but Meledandri hasn't yet shown the little ambition Dreamworks have had in making the quality of both story and animation in movies like Dragon, Panda, Guardians and so on. 

 

That's right, and some of the media have gone way overboard in crowning Meledandri as some kind of animation king or guru.

 

 

On 4/28/2016 at 10:45 AM, BK007 said:

Despicable Me has already jumped off a cliff with Minions and Pets looks horrid. 

 

And I'd hardly consider Ice Age, with which he was originally involved, some kind of godsend.  Not that those in his position deserve as much credit/blame as they typically get, but in any case all he has had is a few successes--albeit humongous successes--at the box office (plus ancillary markets), but other than that little has been accomplished under his leadership.

 

 

On 4/28/2016 at 10:48 AM, cannastop said:

It's not all up to Meledandri for the movies to be good, you know.

 

But does he have the ambition and drive to make great animated features?  He seems all about keeping costs down and thereby maximizing profit to me (not a bad idea, generally, but not exactly the mark of a creative leader, either).  What effort does he put in getting the right people and getting them to make the best movies they possibly can?

 

 

On 4/29/2016 at 8:24 PM, cannastop said:

It would be utter madness to close the Glendale Studio.

 

But it would be so costly to keep operating indefinitely as a full production studio.  Even Disney and Lasseter outsource production for DisneyToon's movies (but neither WDAS nor Pixar at this time), and DWA had already been outsourcing some of their work to China and India anyway.  Illumination outsource their production to France, which offers government subsidies, of course; the studio, Illumination Mac Guff, is owned by Comcast, but it can still be considered outsourcing to another country where costs are substantially lower (for one reason or another), and the same is very likely to happen with DWA eventually, which for many would mean the end of DWA as we know it.  You know, I've never really been a fan of DWA, but nevertheless...

 

 

On 4/29/2016 at 8:24 PM, cannastop said:

It would give WDAS and Pixar a chance to do a hiring frenzy.

 

I imagine this would be pretty meaningless to Meledandri and Universal (unless the latter want to be like Disney even more than I think!).