Hollywood shake-up: Comcast seals giant deal to buy DreamWorks Animation

The deal puts Universal and DreamWorks under one roof, setting up powerful rivalry with Disney

Signaling a giant upheaval for Hollywood, Comcast, the owner of NBCUniversal, said it had reached an agreement to purchase DreamWorks Animation, the studio that gave the world Shrek and other major blockbusters including Madagascar.

The deal, worth $3,8 billion, was first rumoured several days ago. It means that DreamWorks will now combine with Universal Pictures which has itself had some animation successes in recent years with its Illumination Entertainment unit with films like Despicable Me and Minions.

If the deal is successful it will also place Comcast in the new position of chief rival to the Walt Disney Company.

It will offer some consolation to Comcast which attempted to grow exponentially with a bid for Time Warner Cable last year. That deal eventually fell through, however, leaving Comcast scouting around for different opportunities.

The man in charge of Dreamworks now is Jeffrey Katzenberg, an icon of Hollywood who, under the terms of the deal, will be in charge of a new entity, DreamWorks New Media

“Having spent the past two decades working together with our team to build DreamWorks Animation into one of the world’s most beloved brands, I am proud to say that NBCUniversal is the perfect home for our company,” Mr Katzenberg said in a statement.