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SoftBank Stock Falls in Tokyo on Uncertainty Over DreamWorks Animation Deal

Speculation over the $3.4 billion DWA bid pushes the stock lower as the overall market rises

SoftBank Stock Falls Tokyo on Uncertainty Over DreamWorks Animation Deal

Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider’s DreamWorks Studio is taking more control of its movies several international territories. Dreamworks signed a deal this week with David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment, which will see Mr. Smith handle DreamWorks titles in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Reliance Entertainment, which holds a major stake in DreamWorks, distributes their films in India while Disney will continue to handle the release of DreamWorks films everywhere else.

SoftBank stock was down around 1 percent in Monday afternoon trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, as uncertainty over its $3.4 billion bid for DreamWorks Animation (DWA) led investors to sell the stock even as the overall market moved neared a seven-year high.

As speculation about whether the acquisition of DWA will go ahead increased Monday, SoftBank stock fell back to ?7,819 (US$71.3) from its closing price Friday after having been even lower in the morning session. 

Although the DWA bid represents only 10 percent of the $30 billion SoftBank spent on overseas’ M&A last year — including the biggest foreign takeover in Japanese corporate history — the lack of clarity about the deal seemed to be spooking investors.

News of negotiations between SoftBank and DWA was broken by The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday, with the story then being picked up around the world. 

A report in Japan’s leading business newspaper the Nikkei today quoted an unnamed SoftBank source as saying that “the chances are low” of the deal going through.

Twitter: @GavinJBlair

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