DreamWorks receives an official offer of two billion dollars from Softbank, the Japanese media, finance and telecommunications giant. According to some rumors, however, the manufacturer of Shrek, Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda could change hands for an even more substantial sum: we are talking about 3,4 billion, or 32 dollars per share. In any case, there is no confirmation from either side.
The American house continues to suffer from increasingly underwhelming box office revenues and, despite attempts to launch itself into other market sectors such as television and digital consumer products, it continues to remain tied to the results of the two-three films produced each year. As for the Japanese giant, it is continuing its strategy of penetrating the US market after the acquisition of the third largest telephone operator Sprint Nextel and the attempted operation for the purchase of Universal Music.
However, investors do not seem to like the rumors about a possible DreamWorks operation, and the 1,2% loss recorded by Softbank on the Tokyo stock exchange is only a warning. In fact, a trader underlined how the possible acquisition denounces the exhaustion of the takeover options of the Japanese company, which is instead looking for new contents, “but this is different from growing in one's main business. There is not much joy for investors in this news, reminiscent of something already seen in 1989 with Sony's offer for Columbia Pictures. An offer that for Sony's shares did not prove to be very profitable in the long term”.
