MOSCOW, September 28 (RIA Novosti) - The Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank corp. is in talks to acquire DreamWorks Animations (DWA), currently valued at $34 billion and Hollywood’s largest independent animation studio, The Hollywood Reporter reported in the early hours of Sunday.
The Hollywood Reporter newsletter, which have acquired the information from an unidentified source, reported that DWA’s founder and CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, would sign a five year contract to remain with the company, in an emergency meeting that was held on Thursday by the board.
The source said that SoftBank offered a $32 a share while the DWA stock closed on Friday at $22.36 per share.
DreamWorks declined to comment on the talks while SoftBank could not reached for comments.
"We don't comment on rumors and speculation," a DWA spokesperson was quoted as saying by the Hollywood Reporter.
DWA currently releases its movies through 20th Century Fox, its parent company, including the biggest hits Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda films, but has been unstable with stocks largely rising and falling on the box-office performance.
DreamWorks Animation is also trying to reduce the cost of its film budgets, which currently exceed $100 million, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Saturday.
In the meantime, SoftBank has been on an acquisition spree and hit the limelight for its $20 million investment in Chinese e-commerce group, Alibaba Group Holdings Limited. SoftBank held a stake worth almost $75 billion in Alibaba just after the first week of trading earlier this month.
