Paul Allen: Separating From DreamWorks SKG

DreamWorksSKG couldn't have gotten off the ground more than a decade ago if it weren't for Paul Allen's $500 million investment. Perhaps his work is done--now he's selling $150 million of DreamWorks Animation stock back to the company, and doing a secondary offering to sell an additional 10 million shares to the public.

Allen (who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates) is a multi-billionaire who runs Vulcan Capital and isn't totally cashing out of the company--he'll retain ownership of about 7% of DreamWorks(somewhere north of 6 million shares) but he is stepping down from the DreamWorks Animation Board. DWA stock did not react well to this news.

Allen's been extricating himself from this investment for a while--DreamWorks Animation's IPO and the sale of DreamWorks to Paramount all part of a slow divestiture to not rock the boat-- a strategy which didn't quite work this morning considering the stock sell off. Allen says this move is all about rebalancing Vulcan's portfolio, which also owns Oxygen, the cable TV channel, Charter Communications and a football team (Seattle Seahawks) and a basketball team (Portland Trail Blazers).

Questions? Comments? [e-mail]