29 Sep – DreamWorks Animation, the studio that brought animation-film-loving audience the likes of "Shrek" and "How to Train Your Dragon", is currently on the to-buy list of Japanese telecommunications powerhouse, SoftBank. DreamWorks Animation and Softbank are at the moment in talks over the acquisition of the Hollywood studio by the telco giant, The Verge reports. Softbank is reportedly going to use the content from the animation studio to enable Sprint, the U.S. mobile carrier the Japanese company successfully took over last year, to branch out to a wider group of consumers in the US. The Wall Street Journal theorised this could be the approach taken by SoftBank CEO and Sprint Chairman, Masayoshi Son, to widen Sprint's reach in the U.S. following its failure to purchase T-Mobile, the country's fourth mobile carrier, months ago.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, helmed the animation studio since it had spun-off from DreamWorks Studios, the live-action studio started by Katzenberg with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen in 1994. After several ups and downs in the box office charts, with movies like "How to Train Your Dragon 2" and "The Croods" making big profits but others like "Turbo" and "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" not making as much profit as hoped, Katzenberg just might be ready for a take-over. Katzenberg will sign a five-year contract and remain as CEO if and when the deal is finalised.