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Comcast Buys Dreamworks Animation for $3.8bn

The deal's gonna happen. There's an unbelievable amount of precedent with the Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm buyouts. It's a relatively small amount of money compared to Comcast's last attempted buyout. TWC buyout was blocked by FCC, not DOJ/FTC, so there's no lasting ill-will over there.
 
If there was plans for it not to go through, CNBC wouldn't have been the first to break the news...you know the company owned by Comcast. Interesting though I think I know Comcast's next goal.

There actually are plans in place should it not go through. It's been reported in several different places. It includes Comcast paying $200 million to DWA should the fall through happen on their side.

The deal's gonna happen. There's an unbelievable amount of precedent with the Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm buyouts. It's a relatively small amount of money compared to Comcast's last attempted buyout. TWC buyout was blocked by FCC, not DOJ/FTC, so there's no lasting ill-will over there.

I would argue that there are MANY precedents for large buyouts falling through as well. And the amount of money they are spending is not the issue, it's the amount of money vs what they are getting. Most analysts are saying that 3.8 billion is way over valuing DWA, and that has people on both sides starting to worry.

I personally don't see it NOT going through, however the old adage "Don't count your chickens until they've hatched" has survived this long for a reason.
 
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:look:

not this, right?


I thought that at first but there is no true benefit for them except even more films to fight for spots at the box office and going up against each other which makes no sense.

Then I looked in Comcast's recent partnerships overseas

2013 Geneon Entertainment became NBCuniversal Japan.
may 7 2015 Nintendo Partners with Universal Parks and Resorts
June 2015 Sanrio to Universal Parks in the US
September 2015 Comcast buys Universal Studios Japan
2016 Universal buys Dreamworks Animations after they set up Oriental Dreamworks

What is the common trend? There is something odd and distinct involved with all of these partnerships.


Also here is the official press release so you can hear it direct from the mouth of Comcast instead of third parties. Dreamworks is going under one huge umbrella of Animation with the head of Illuminations running the show. You don't pull out of a deal you publicly announce yourself without hurting yourself stockwise. Lets not forget Pixar costed Disney 7.4 Billion.

NBCUniversal Announces DreamWorks Animation Acquisition
 
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The deal's gonna happen. There's an unbelievable amount of precedent with the Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm buyouts. It's a relatively small amount of money compared to Comcast's last attempted buyout. TWC buyout was blocked by FCC, not DOJ/FTC, so there's no lasting ill-will over there.
Yeah, there's no problem with this deal from the government agencies. The Warner deal was deemed monopolistic cable, that's why Comcast had to back off. At this price there's no way Dreamwork's shareholders resist the deal. And Comcast management can basically pay any price they want. It's as done of a deal as you'll ever see, unless some poison shows up in the books.
 

That depends, are we talking good as in critically, or profit? Illumination has done a very nice job of making a profit out of realatively "cheap" films. (Granted $60-70 million ain't cheap, but it is when you compare it to Pixar and Dreamworks who are giving their films budgets of $130-200 million.)

Though admittedly when it comes to the films critically, it's kinda hit or miss.
Despicable Me - In my opinion so far it's the best film they've done.
Hop - It's a mixed bag, kinda middle of the road.
The Lorax - Ho boy...for me this is right up there with the live action Cat in the Hat as the worst Suess film adaptation. (It's also why I'm incredibly nervous about their upcoming The Grinch film.)
DM 2 - It's a nice film, but not as good as the first.
Minions - It's alright, though compared to the DM films it's on the weak side.

Without a doubt Illuminations will be making films that'll make quite a profit, question is will they be able to make films that'll be right up there with Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks best which are very highly acclaimed? Looking at the current lineup for Illumination...

SLoP - It'll do fine finacially, but with it being a pet version of Toy Story and some voice actor choices ain't winning me over.
SING - No. No. NO. Go away jukebox musical that's oh so proud of all the friggin' songs it's using, go away.
DM 3 - It's a wait and see, but we know how the third film hasn't been good for most series.
The Grinch - As I've said before, thanks to how they did the Lorax I'm quite nerveous about this.

...Right now I'm gonna' say not yet. I really hope so down the line, but I don't see it happening in this group.

I may be really critical about that, but that's because I want to see this studio do really great films. It's good they're making a profit with their films, but I don't wanna' see it turn into another Blue Sky where they're churning out terrible/lazy sequels after another because those are what make the most money. (Like Blue Sky is doing with Ice Age.)
 
The benefit of having two animation studios is you can finally have both actually take time to churn out high quality stuff as you can put out more animated releases. Otherwise you end up like Disney when they put out Chicken Little, Home on the range and all those box office flops.
 
I thought that at first but there is no true benefit for them except even more films to fight for spots at the box office and going up against each other which makes no sense.

Then I looked in Comcast's recent partnerships overseas

2013 Geneon Entertainment became NBCuniversal Japan.
may 7 2015 Nintendo Partners with Universal Parks and Resorts
June 2015 Sanrio to Universal Parks in the US
September 2015 Comcast buys Universal Studios Japan
2016 Universal buys Dreamworks Animations after they set up Oriental Dreamworks

What is the common trend? There is something odd and distinct involved with all of these partnerships.


Also here is the official press release so you can hear it direct from the mouth of Comcast instead of third parties. Dreamworks is going under one huge umbrella of Animation with the head of Illuminations running the show. You don't pull out of a deal you publicly announce yourself without hurting yourself stockwise. Lets not forget Pixar costed Disney 7.4 Billion.

NBCUniversal Announces DreamWorks Animation Acquisition
I absolutely see a trend who would you assume they'd target next?

DWA was a wallet full.. it'd be a while if i took a guess unless something comes up that simply can not be passed
 
I absolutely see a trend who would you assume they'd target next?

DWA was a wallet full.. it'd be a while if i took a guess unless something comes up that simply can not be passed

My top 3 guesses would be Fuji TV (owns a good part of Toho, and distribution method as well and has content) , Shueisha (lot of content that is very famous in America but no distribution which would be a lose), Toho itself (Those who hold Godzilla rights rule the world and would then be able to distribution method in the Japanese marketplace).

Why just have a home video distribution company in Japan with a limited amount of content when you can take the whole cake.
 
My top 3 guesses would be Fuji TV (owns a good part of Toho, and distribution method as well and has content) , Shueisha (lot of content that is very famous in America but no distribution which would be a lose), Toho itself (Those who hold Godzilla rights rule the world and would then be able to distribution method in the Japanese marketplace).

Why just have a home video distribution company in Japan with a limited amount of content when you can take the whole cake.

I hope not. Hollywood needs to stay far away from Weekly Shonen Jump. I would hate to see what they would do to a live action One Piece. I wouldn't mind them buying Aniplex though. Those guy are even greedier than Disney is.
 
I hope not. Hollywood needs to stay far away from Weekly Shonen Jump. I would hate to see what they would do to a live action One Piece. I wouldn't mind them buying Aniplex though. Those guy are even greedier than Disney is.

I would lean towards Toho or Fuji TV to be honest. The only way they would want Shueisha is if they could get it for super cheap and probably would mess up Universal's partnership with Funimation for home video distribution due to acquistion of Viz media with the deal.
 
Until I start getting hyped about movies and their translation to themed enviornments down the road in the next few years from post ownership, I am more excited about the classic library Universal just aqquired including:

Lassie, Casper, Where's Waldo?, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty The Snowman.

Granted those are not exactly hot properties, but it is an awesome bonus and many now considered classic, timeless or traditional in our culture with the holidays. Especially since Universal has been toying around with more holidays for awhile now beyond Grinch and Macy's.
 
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Until I start getting hyped about movies and their translation to themed enviornments down the road in the next few years from post ownership, I am more excited about the classic library Universal just aqquired including:

Lassie, Casper, Where's Waldo?, Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, Frosty The Snowman.

Granted those are not exactly hot properties, but it is an awesome bonus and many now considered classic, timeless or traditional in our culture with the holidays. Especially since Universal has been toying around with more holidays for awhile now beyond Grinch and Macy's.

Would be a great holiday tie-in. Grinchmas at IOA and the classic stop action characters at USF.
I wonder how ownership of those would affect broadcast airings. Would ABC/CBS lose the broadcast rights? That would be a good ratings pickup for NBC in the winter.
 
Jeffrey Shell (Universal Film Chief) on what the deal will essentially cover and why and what are some of their plans. (Already planning Kung Fu Panda for Beijing).
Jeff Shell Talks DreamWorks Animation Deal: "I Plead Guilty to Disney Envy" (Q&A) - Hollywood Reporter

Interesting quote though.
We were willing to pay and the reason for that is we liked the company for a number of strategic reasons that had nothing to do with just the pure profitability. So, for example, they had a television operation that we are in the first inning of setting up here at Universal that’s going to take us five to seven years and tons of investment and a lot of luck to get to where they’ve gotten. So the day after this deal closes, we can pump property through that television operation — whether it’s Fast and Furious or Jurassic World — and create value because they have a business that’s up and going with a creative team and a TV animation structure that would take us years to build. Ultimately this was a "buy vs. build" decision for us. We built some of our own franchises and stories, we can continue to do that, but now we got a whole pile of them that they created.
 
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