Media Money
More Videos
- LinkedIn Earnings Bode Well for Hiring and Social Media
- News Corp. Beats Estimates on Studio, Cable Strength
- Disney’s Earnings Beat; CEO Bob Iger Talks Piracy, Parks
- Ahead of Disney’s Earnings: Ads and Cable Revenue at the Magic Kingdom
- Coinstar Beats Earnings Forecast on Redbox Growth
- After The Super Bowl: Who’s Buying?
- Super Bowl XLVI: It's All About the Second Screen
- The Super Bowl's Big Advertising Winners: Super Sunday Ad Tracker
- A Sneak Peek at Facebook's New Headquarters
- Twitter’s CEO Weighs in on Google, Censorship Ahead of Facebook IPO
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- Private Homebuilders: Dead Men Walking
- Pauley Perrette's Southern Bakery a Hit in Manhattan
- Stocks at Lows, 34 Italian Banks Downgraded
- GE Holds Dividend Steady; Fourth-Quarter Hike Seen
- US Trade Deficit Swells to $48.8 Billion on China Gap
- Confusing Chinese Data Signal Bearish Trend
- Japan Minister Makes Rare Remark on Yen Intervention
- Steelers' Antonio Brown Spends Super Bowl Week with Twitter Fan Turned BFF
- Kimco Realty CEO on Solid Earnings
- Bankers in Asia Aren't as Reviled as in West: DBS CEO
- Dow vs. S&P 500: Which is a Better Investment?
- Mick Fleetwood on the MP3 ‘Dumbing Down’ of Music
- Avis on the Road to Strong Growth: Analyst
- Private Homebuilders: Dead Men Walking
- LinkedIn’s Growth Is Already Priced In: Analyst
- The Real Reason Behind Bank of America’s Rally
- 5 Hedge Funds’ Top Stocks Soar After 2011 Rout
- This Valentine’s Day Love Is Served on a Silver Platter
- CEO to CEO: Our Roles Are Changing
- With Investors So Bullish, Stock Pullback Must Be Ahead
- Is Bill Gross, PIMCO's Bond King, Losing His Touch?
- Greece Austerity Deal Runs Into Trouble Once Again
- Why Saving Greece Could Destroy the World
- Apple’s Record Run: $500 Is a Magic Number
- Private Homebuilders: Dead Men Walking
- Housing Still Hurting Consumers, Economy: Bernanke
- Get Ready for $5 Gas This Year: Ex-Shell CEO
- The World's Best Beers
Viacom's CEO Dauman: Moving Beyond Geffen And Spielberg?
Text Size 
Correspondent
 |
AP Philippe Dauman |
] had a point to make to investors at a media conference this week. Dauman said that losing star producers and DreamWorks chiefs Steven Spielberg and David Geffen would be "completely immaterial" to Paramount and Viacom. He made this comment to investors at Goldman Sachs' media conference, adding that the company is preparing for business without the DreamWorks Studios founders if the two sides can't come to terms renewing their deal. Viacom's Paramount Pictures acquired DreamWorks for about $1.6 billion, closing the deal in early 2006. Now Spielberg and Geffen's deals expire in late 2008. While they probably wouldn't be able to take DreamWorks' name with them, they'd be taking the company's brain trust.
Is Dauman bluffing? Certainly the powerhouses' presence at Paramount is not immaterial. Paramount itself is in the midst of an impressive turnaround but DreamWorks was involved in all its strongest films so far this year. This spring "Norbit," "Blades of Glory," and "Disturbia," all big hits, all came from DreamWorks. And "Transformers" was a huge success--a joint venture between DreamWorks and Paramount.
Dauman may have been exaggerating about how little they need Spielberg and Geffen, but he is smart to start planning for a different kind of company without them around. Does he think that in this new credit crunch environment it'd be hard for the duo to get film financing? Even if the hedge funds pull back their financing, there will always be another group of investors wanting to pour money into movies, especially those from the DreamWorks team.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
