NBCUniversal To Buy DreamWorks Animation

[The Interpreter]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/comcast-talks-buy-dreamworks-animation-888070

[Sonofbeast2.0]

Comcast is like the bad version of Google... They just eat everything but instead don't give back and want more and more.

"to watch the second half of your movie, please go to www.comcast.com/KungFuPanda12/giveusallthemoney/onlyanother99.99"

Note: not a real website address (at least it better not be)!

[The Interpreter]

Really?

And who do you think owns the Universal theme parks?

[vortexfan]

Comcast is like the bad version of Google... They just eat everything but instead don't give back and want more and more.

 

Eh, Google is kinda guilty of that, to some extent. Just as an example....they acquired Songza (a great free, ad-free music steaming site that I really enjoyed) and crappily integrated it with Play Music and started injecting ads every few songs. 

[shark6495]

Yet ads oh revenue and also pay to allow the music to be played.

So the ad free and free music from Songza probably wouldn't have lasted long.

And sort of confused at what the Comcast line was about and what Google does that's so bad?

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[Steph88]

Eh, Google kinda ruined Youtube. Used to be the ads were just on a side bar, then Google bought them, and now there's video ads delaying almost EVERY video on the site. And the ads often are more difficult to load and require more buffering than the video itself. So it takes even longer.

 

At least they have a good search engine though.

[Sonofbeast2.0]

Really?

And who do you think owns the Universal theme parks?

I know... And there ticket prices/pass prices now... Yikes!

That happened right around 2010 didn't it?

[CoastersRZ]

Yes, Universal theme park tickets have been raised several times, and are pricey.  But the price is worth it.  Comcast has certainly been spending a lot to invest in THEIR theme parks.

 

Google has to make money somehow in order to help pay for some of the infrastructure that YouTube requires.  Just think of all the data that they have to store just for YouTube alone.  Not to mention the free stuff that they do offer, such as gmail.  Google has stock holders to answer to.

 

As an aside, but slightly related note, Time Warner Cable`s purchase by Charter Communications is inching closer to approval.  (Saw an article on it this morning).  Originally, Comcast was going to buy Time Warner Cable and sell off some markets (including Cincinanti) to Charter to abide by anti-trust issues.  The deal fell apart and Charter Communications ended up purchasing Time Warner Cable.

[The Interpreter]

Actually, Alphabet has stockholders....

[purdude86]

Yes, Universal theme park tickets have been raised several times, and are pricey.  But the price is worth it.  Comcast has certainly been spending a lot to invest in THEIR theme parks.

 

Google has to make money somehow in order to help pay for some of the infrastructure that YouTube requires.  Just think of all the data that they have to store just for YouTube alone.  Not to mention the free stuff that they do offer, such as gmail.  Google has stock holders to answer to.

 

As an aside, but slightly related note, Time Warner Cable`s purchase by Charter Communications is inching closer to approval.  (Saw an article on it this morning).  Originally, Comcast was going to buy Time Warner Cable and sell off some markets (including Cincinanti) to Charter to abide by anti-trust issues.  The deal fell apart and Charter Communications ended up purchasing Time Warner Cable.

 

Yea I feel many of the complaints people have for these companies that bought other things, are for things that were likely inevitable to happen either way. Youtube woudl liekly have had more and more ads added to it to help pay for it, and with free music programs they either would put in ads or start charging. 

Also ticket prices would have probably gone up at Universal whether Comcast bought them or not. Most parks raise their admission prices over the years, plus the higher ticket price helps generate more revenue to be able to ivnest back into the park which Comcast has been doing a fantastic job of at Universal with lots of great knew rides and areas as well as new hotels adn water park coming. If ticket prices stayed the same as they were in mid '00s we might not have had all the additions we have gotten this soon or as detailed.

[stashua123]

Actually, Alphabet has stockholders....

Yup, it will take people a long time to get used to that new name for the company, formally Alphabet, formerly known as Google. The name change and corporate restructuring that came along with it though was a huge success for the stock too so I guess it was needed.

I think it would be a nightmare if Comcast acquires Dreamworks, Dreamworks is doing well enough without a big corporation over their heads. Comcast is already doing bad enough with their horrible customer and cable service. But, they did acquire Universal Parks so if they acquire Dreamworks you will see Dreamworks characters in the theme parks(ohhhhh I understand why they are probably doing this now....)

EDIT: Fixed, Thanks Terp!

[The Interpreter]

Uh...Alphabet was formerly known as Google.

It's formally known as Alphabet, not Google.

Don't be rediculous and loose grammer.

EDIT: When you go back and edit a post after something is pointed out, it is customary to indicate you did and to acknowledge why...

[Diamondback96]

 

Comcast is like the bad version of Google... They just eat everything but instead don't give back and want more and more.

 

Eh, Google is kinda guilty of that, to some extent. Just as an example....they acquired Songza (a great free, ad-free music steaming site that I really enjoyed) and crappily integrated it with Play Music and started injecting ads every few songs. 

 

I prefer my music grilled.

[The Interpreter]

Deal reached.

So says USAToday Breaking News email.

[The Interpreter]

$3.8 Billion -- Bloomberg Radio.

Wow.

[Sonofbeast2.0]

Well let's see how it goes... Sometimes, not a thing changes really other times a  lot changes either for the good or the worse.

[The Interpreter]

Buyer is NBCUniversal. Topic title changed.

[Voicetek]

Do you suppose this could mean some Dreamworks attractions and characters at the Universal Studios parks?

 

A 'How to Train Your Dragon' ride would be pretty sweet.

[Oldiesmann]

If the powers that be feel there's enough interest in a particular franchise, I'm sure we'll see some Dreamworks stuff popping up at Universal Studios. They certainly have a lot of franchises to work with, especially with another Ice Age movie due out this summer.

[Voicetek]

Heck, I think even some merchandise would be cool.  You don't see a lot of merchandise around based on Dreamworks stuff.

[purdude86]

If the powers that be feel there's enough interest in a particular franchise, I'm sure we'll see some Dreamworks stuff popping up at Universal Studios. They certainly have a lot of franchises to work with, especially with another Ice Age movie due out this summer.

Not sure how the deal would have any effect or outcome in the parks for the new Ice Age film as they are done by Blue Sky which is part of Fox and not through Dreamworks

[Oldiesmann]

You're right. I completely forgot that Ice Age wasn't part of Dreamworks. Not sure why I thought it was :/

[RingMaster]

NBC/Universal already has DreamWorks characters in their parks. Stateside, the only DW-based attraction is the Shrek 4D ride in Hollywood and Orlando. Outside the US, however...Singapore has two massive lands devoted to both Shrek and the Madagascar franchises, with detail rivaling that of both Disney theme parks and Universal's own Harry Potter lands:

 

 

- Far, Far, Away castle from Shrek 2 (image via Wikipedia)

 

 

- Madagascar Crate Adventure (image via ThemeParkGuy.com)

[thegajone]

Man, that's almost what Disney paid for Star Wars. Seems high to me (granted I'm pretty ignorant about the subject, but still).

I also heard yesterday that the deal includes theme park rights to the other Dreamworks company, but I haven't bothered to look up how accurate that is.

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[Oldiesmann]

The only thing I could find related to that in the official announcement is this:

 

Additionally, DreamWorks Classics, a large library of classic characters, including Where’s Waldo, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, will become part of the NBCUniversal portfolio, along with a successful consumer products business.

 

http://www.nbcuniversal.com/article/nbcuniversal-announces-acquisition-dreamworks-animation

[Voicetek]

Man, that's almost what Disney paid for Star Wars. Seems high to me (granted I'm pretty ignorant about the subject, but still).

I also heard yesterday that the deal includes theme park rights to the other Dreamworks company, but I haven't bothered to look up how accurate that is.

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Disney didn't buy just Star Wars, they purchased Lucasfilm.  They got an amazing deal and the buying price was too low if you ask me.  $4 billion for JUST Star Wars would've been about right, but throw in everything else they got with that price and Disney made out like a bandit.  With the Lucasfilm deal, not only did Disney acquire Star Wars, but also Industrial Light and Magic, Skywalker Sound, and the Indiana Jones properties.  Disney paid $7.4 billion for Pixar back in 2006, so $4 billion for Lucasfilm and everything that comes with it seems a little low to me.  They'll make their $4 billion back and then some on Star Wars alone considering the first movie in the new franchise cashed in at over $1 billion or more, that's not including the merchandising and theme park opportunities.

 

Here's an interesting article that talks about Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm being "The Deal of the Century" and estimates that Disney will generate $500 million in revenue just from Star Wars alone by the end of this year and that Star Wars toys and merchandise generated about $2 billion in retail sales by the end of last year. 

 

This article breaks down the value of Star Wars and all it's products and claims that Disney should be able to turn their $4 billion investment into $30 billion. The article also states that, "Along with the buyout, Disney is getting Lucasfilm’s operating businesses in live action film production, consumer products, video games, animation, visual effects, and audio postproduction. Disney is also getting the substantial portfolio of entertainment technologies that can be licensed out, something which we never included in any valuation analysis because it was not tied solely to Star Wars. That is potentially hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars more for Disney when you stretch those sales and license fees out for years and years into the future."

I'm not sure if we can compare the price of what Universal paid for Dreamworks to what Disney paid for Lucasfilm.  I think one price was about right and the other way, way too low.

[jcgoble3]

Eh, Google kinda ruined Youtube. Used to be the ads were just on a side bar, then Google bought them, and now there's video ads delaying almost EVERY video on the site. And the ads often are more difficult to load and require more buffering than the video itself. So it takes even longer.

 

Firefox.

 

Adblock Plus.

 

What ads?

[thegajone]

Man, that's almost what Disney paid for Star Wars. Seems high to me (granted I'm pretty ignorant about the subject, but still).

I also heard yesterday that the deal includes theme park rights to the other Dreamworks company, but I haven't bothered to look up how accurate that is.

Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

Disney didn't buy just Star Wars, they purchased Lucasfilm. They got an amazing deal and the buying price was too low if you ask me. $4 billion for JUST Star Wars would've been about right, but throw in everything else they got with that price and Disney made out like a bandit. With the Lucasfilm deal, not only did Disney acquire Star Wars, but also Industrial Light and Magic, Skywalker Sound, and the Indiana Jones properties. Disney paid $7.4 billion for Pixar back in 2006, so $4 billion for Lucasfilm and everything that comes with it seems a little low to me. They'll make their $4 billion back and then some on Star Wars alone considering the first movie in the new franchise cashed in at over $1 billion or more, that's not including the merchandising and theme park opportunities.

Here's an interesting article that talks about Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm being "The Deal of the Century" and estimates that Disney will generate $500 million in revenue just from Star Wars alone by the end of this year and that Star Wars toys and merchandise generated about $2 billion in retail sales by the end of last year.

This article breaks down the value of Star Wars and all it's products and claims that Disney should be able to turn their $4 billion investment into $30 billion. The article also states that, "Along with the buyout, Disney is getting Lucasfilm’s operating businesses in live action film production, consumer products, video games, animation, visual effects, and audio postproduction. Disney is also getting the substantial portfolio of entertainment technologies that can be licensed out, something which we never included in any valuation analysis because it was not tied solely to Star Wars. That is potentially hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars more for Disney when you stretch those sales and license fees out for years and years into the future."

I'm not sure if we can compare the price of what Universal paid for Dreamworks to what Disney paid for Lucasfilm. I think one price was about right and the other way, way too low.

Ah, so it's more a case of Lucasfilm being a value moreso than Dreamworks being overpriced. Thanks for the info.

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[rcwizard13]

Eh, Google kinda ruined Youtube. Used to be the ads were just on a side bar, then Google bought them, and now there's video ads delaying almost EVERY video on the site. And the ads often are more difficult to load and require more buffering than the video itself. So it takes even longer.

Firefox.

Adblock Plus.

What ads?

Why Firefox? I use Adblock on Chrome just fine. And there's no loading issues, either.