I have a pretty high regard for content and as much as I believe that content is king, I also know that acquiring content is not always the best move for some platforms. Case in point is international telecommunication giant, Softbank, owner of Sprint. While their move to acquire T-Mobile was thwarted, a merger that did seem to make sense, an acquisition of DreamWorks Animation does not.
DreamWorks Animation was once part of DreamWorks SKG before spinning out into its own animation business. And while it has had some great theatrical animated hits like the Shrek and Madagascar series of films, it has most recently struggled. A cash infusion would help DreamWorks Animation to develop more projects, but how it fits into the Softbank business is less clear. Given their size and place in the mobile space, that would need a much larger bank of content to pursue an exclusive niche of content offerings. That might not be appealing to customers who like to access their content across different platforms, some mobile, some not. Sprint and Softbank would need to make a sizable investment in this infrastructure to grow. Perhaps partnerships with Microsoft or Apple to make sizable inroads.
For now, we wait and see if Softbank acquires DreamWorks and what their largest motives will be. At first glance, it may not be the right piece in entering the content business.
