Shrek, Kung Fu Panda Studio in Talks to Sell to Comcast for $3 Billion - Report

[UPDATE] Comcast has now confirmed that its NBC Universal subsidiary has purchased DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion.

The original story is below.

Shrek and Kung Fu Panda film studio DreamWorks Animation has been trying to sell itself for years, and now, it appears cable company Comcast is preparing to make a deal. The Wall Street Journal reports that Comcast is in talks to buy the company for more than $3 billion.

As WSJ explains, buying DreamWorks Animation would allow Comcast to better compete with Disney in the family entertainment space. Comcast already owns Universal Pictures, whose family properties produced by Illumination Entertainment include Despicable Me and Minions, among others.

It is possible that talks between Comcast and DreamWorks Animation do not amount to anything. If the $3 billion figure is accurate, it's substantially above DreamWorks Animation's current $2.3 billion market cap.

Under the leadership of CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation has been looking for a buyer for the past few years, meeting with companies like SoftBank and Hasbro. If the Comcast deal goes through and Katzenberg departs the company, he would receive $21.9 million.

DreamWorks Animation is one of the last major studios not owned by a bigger company. In 2004, the company spun off from DreamWorks SKG, a wider entertainment firm founded in 1994 by Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, and David Geffen. If Comcast buys DreamWorks Animation, it would bring the two companies back together, according to the report.

The full WSJ story contains many more details and can be read here.

In other news about DreamWorks Animation, the company is working with Netflix on new content, including a Voltron reboot and a show called Trollhunters from Guillermo del Toro.