Comcast to Buy DreamWorks Animation for $3.8B

Comcast Corp, the owner of NBCUniversal, said on Thursday it would buy DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc for $3.8 billion.

The $41-per-share cash offer represents a premium of about 27 percent to DreamWorks' Wednesday close.

Trading in Dreamworks shares, which have gained nearly 50 percent in the last six months, was halted.

DreamWorks Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg will become chairman of DreamWorks New Media, which will include the company's ownership interests in Awesomeness TV and NOVA.

Katzenberg will also serve as a consultant to NBCUniversal.

DreamWorks Animation, known for movie franchises such as "Shrek" and "KungFu Panda", was spun off from DreamWorks Studios in 2004. The studio was founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on Wednesday that Comcast was in talks to buy DreamWorks Animation for over $3 billion.

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Rishika Sadam in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)