DreamWorks Animation in Talks to Sell to Japan’s SoftBank

DreamWorks Animation could soon have a new owner in Japan’s SoftBank.

Jeffrey Katzenberg is in talks to sell his toon studio to the conglomerate. The deal would value DWA at around $3.4 billion, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the news. DWA currently has a market cap of nearly $1.9 billion.

Katzenberg would remain the head of DWA should the deal occur, with the exec signing a five-year contract to remain its CEO.

SoftBank is said to be offering $32 a share to purchase DWA, higher than the studio’s stock price of $22.36, as of Friday.

DreamWorks Animation, which has released its films through 20th Century Fox, starting with “The Croods,” last year, has a mixed record at the box office of late. While “How To Train Your Dragon 2″ is a hit, earning $611 million this summmer, it missed with “Mr. Peabody & Sherman,” taking in just $273 million. “Turbo” also didn’t live up to expectations, although the film has since spun off an animated series on Netflix, through which it is expanding aggressively into TV so that it doesn’t have to rely as heavily on films as it has in the past.

However, DWA has scored considerably with its fruitful acquisition of AwesomenessTV, a digital network targeting a young online audience — that and its relationship with Netflix likely helped attract the attention of SoftBank, which has a number of major investments in digital platforms.

The company owns significant shares in Alibaba, Sprint, Yahoo and GungHo Online Entertainment, a mobile gamemaker.

DreamWorks Animation has operated as a publicly traded company since 2004.

The potential takeover by SoftBank comes as DWA has spent much of the year in the midst of a reorg of its corporate ranks. In August, it hired Fazal Merchant to replace Lew Coleman as its new chief financial officer. Merchant is a former DirecTV and Barclays Capital executive.

In July, it hired former Disney exec Mark Zoradi to serve as chief operating officer, and upped Ann Daly to president.

DreamWorks Animation declined to comment on the news, saying it doesn’t “comment on rumors and speculation.”