Viacom-Paramount snaps up Dreamworks

Well, it's happened - and it came out of the blue. U.S. media giant Viacom is buying Dreamworks SKG. The deal, according to the Wall Street Journal is worth a total of $1.6 billion. Viacom outbid competitor GE-NBC-Universal for the studio, which was set up 11 years ago by Steven Spielberg, former Disney exec Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen (hence the "SKG" in the company's name). Although the deal does not apparently include the animation component of the company, Dreamworks Animation SKG, it will give Viacom-Paramount the rights to distributing that company's products. Over the years Dreamworks has produced hit movies such as "The Peacemaker" (its first release, in 1997), "Saving Private Ryan," and "American Beauty" and "Gladiator" (which, consecutively, won DreamWorks two best picture Oscars, in 1999 and 2000). But recent years have been more problematic, and the last year in particular has seen Dreamworks bomb with products such as "The Island" and "Just Like Heaven."

The development shows - again - how hard it is for movie studios to operate independently of the big TransNational Corporations that dominate global media today. The move follows on from Sony's deal earlier this year to buy up MGM for $5 billion.