Comcast is in discussions to buy DreamWorks for more than $3 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports, a purchase that could see the animation company joining a stable of Comcast-owned studios that includes Universal Pictures. The WSJ says that the acquisition would allow Comcast to put the pressure on Disney by more effectively copying that company’s business model, licensing movies such as “Shrek,” “Kung Fu Panda” and “How to Train Your Dragon” for commercial and theme park purposes in much the same way it has already done so with Universal Pictures’ animated films like “Minions” and “Despicable Me.”
This isn’t the first time DreamWorks has been linked with a big telecoms company — the studio held talks with Japanese firm SoftBank in 2014, the same year that it also discussed a possible purchase with toy company Hasbro.
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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