DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg Reacts to Paramount Ani Studio Plan

7:24 AM PDT 7/7/2011 by Georg Szalai

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Matthew Staver/Bloomberg/Getty Images

"They're going into the lower-end of the animation business isn't going to impact DreamWorks at all," he says on the sidelines of Allen & Co.'s annual gathering of media and tech moguls in Sun Valley.

NEW YORK - DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg downplayed the decision by distribution partner Paramount Pictures to launch its own animation division and said that his animation studio is not for sale, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

"They're going into the lower-end of the animation business isn't going to impact DreamWorks at all," he said on the sidelines of investment bank Allen & Co.'s annual gathering of media and tech moguls in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Whether the current distribution deal gets renewed is up to both companies and will be decided next year, he reiterated. "Next year is a moment of opportunity for us," the Journal quoted Katzenberg as saying. "We get to evaluate."

Paramount, part of Viacom, unveiled its new animation division on Wednesday, and DWA shares fell as a result.

The Journal said Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman declined to comment on the likelihood of a renewal beyond saying that the company had been willing to renew in the past.