Dreamworks Animation in talks to sell to Japan's Softbank

DreamWorks Animation could soon have a new owner in Japan's SoftBank.

Jeffrey Katzenberg is in talks to sell his toon studio to the conglomerate. The deal would value DWA at around $3.4 billion, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the news.

Katzenberg would remain the head of DWA should the deal occur, with the exec signing a five-year contract to remain its CEO.

SoftBank is said to be offering $32 a share to purchase DWA, higher than its current stock price of $22, as of Friday.

DreamWorks Animation, which has released its films through 20th Century Fox, starting with "The Croods," last year, has a mixed record at the box office of late. While "How To Train Your Dragon 2" is a hit, earning $611 million this summmer, it missed with "Mr. Peabody & Sherman," taking in just $273 million. "Turbo" also didn't live up to expectations, although the film has since spun off an animated series on Netflix.

However, DWA has scored considerably with its acquisition of AwesomenessTV, a digital network targeting a young online audience -- something that likely helped attract the attention of SoftBank, which has a number of major investments in digital platforms.

The company owns significant shares in Alibaba, Sprint, Yahoo and GungHo Online Entertainment, a mobile gamemaker.

DreamWorks Animation has operated as a publicly traded company since 2004.

The potential takeover by SoftBank comes as DWA hired Fazal Merchant last month to replace Lew Coleman as its new chief financial officer. Merchant is a former DirecTV and Barclays Capital executive.

DreamWorks Animation declined to comment on the news, saying it doesn't "comment on rumors and speculation."

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Tech-friendly cities struggle with new biz rules

BOSTON — A renowned technology hub that is home to some of the country's top universities, Boston is emerging as an unlikely battleground for web-based businesses like Airbnb and Uber, with some saying more regulations are needed to prevent the upstarts from disrupting communities and more established industries.

Boston, prompted by the arrival of the mobile app Haystack, recently banned services that allow people to offer their public parking spaces for sale. Now the City Council is considering restrictions on ride-sharing services like Uber, Lyft and Sidecar and lodging websites like Airbnb, HomeAway and FlipKey, which allow users to book short-term stays in private residences. Across the river in Cambridge, home to Harvard and MIT, officials have been trying for years to restrict rideshares.

From New York to San Francisco, cities have been wrestling with the same questions and developing solutions ranging from outright bans to minimum safety requirements. At the heart, officials say, the issue is about balancing public safety and governmental oversight with the services' growing popularity.

But technology companies point out that the push for regulation is ironic in many technology-heavy cities that have built their reputations, in large part, on being on the leading edge.

"For a city known for its innovation and progressiveness, it is shocking that Cambridge would cling so blindly to the past," Uber wrote on its website in June as it called on supporters to speak out against proposed regulations.

Andrea Jackson, the chair of Cambridge's Licensing Commission, said Uber was oversimplifying the challenges emerging business strategies pose to cities.

"We know that these things are likely here to stay," she said. "My only concern is that they are safe. I want to make sure the drivers have background checks. I want to make sure they have adequate insurance."

Safety mandates have been imposed in other cities. Chicago, for example, assesses licensing fees and requires rideshare companies to submit to background checks, vehicle inspections, driver tests and random drug screens of their employees. The companies are also required to obtain $1 million in commercial auto liability coverage.

Uber spokesman Taylor Bennett said the company understands the need for thoughtful regulations but will fight attempts to protect the local taxi industry.

Cab owners complain rideshares offer lower prices because they avoid licensing fees and other costly mandates imposed on their highly-regulated industry. Boston-area cab drivers staged a noisy, rolling protest around Uber's downtown Boston office in May.

"Simply reacting to taxi or creating regulations or ordinances to protect taxi is protectionism, and that only serves one entrenched industry when consumers are clamoring for more and better options to get around town," Bennett said.

Bennett said Uber is focused on securing specific, statewide authority from legislators to operate in Massachusetts, as they have in Colorado and other states.

For short-term lodging services, cities have focused their energies on imposing local hotel taxes, establishing basic registration programs, and making sure property owners meet minimum housing standards.

Austin, Texas has set up a licensing system with an annual fee and limits on the number of units in a building — or houses in a residential neighborhood — that can be rented at a given time. Portland, Oregon allows single-family homeowners — but not apartment and condo owners — to offer short-term rentals, as long as they complete a safety inspection and neighbor notification process.

In Boston, City Councilor Salvatore LaMattina, who has requested public hearings on Airbnb-type services, says short-term lodging operators should, at minimum, be required to register with the city, so officials at least know where they are, for safety reasons.

He's also concerned the services could eventually end up pricing out families and full-time residents. Landlords, increasingly, are turning their apartments and condos into full-time lodging operations rather than renting them to longer-term tenants, he says. "They're taking away the affordable housing stock," LaMattina said. "I'm working to keep my neighborhoods stable, with families that know each other."

Airbnb spokesman Nick Papas disputed that notion, citing a company-commissioned study that suggests offering rooms for short-term rentals provides extra income to families living in high-cost metropolitan areas.

"We've heard countless stories from people who have been able to stay in their home and the neighborhood they love thanks to Airbnb," he said.

Papas says the San Francisco company has already had "productive conversations" with Boston leaders and looks forward to working on "clear, progressive and fair" rules for home sharing. But he declined to elaborate on what proposals the company would support and which it would strongly oppose.

"We believe people should be able to share the home in which they live," Papas said.

Brooks Rainwater, of the National League of Cities, which is helping cities develop strategies to address these new services, says it's not surprising that the most pitched battles are playing out in tech-friendly cities like Boston and Cambridge.

The college students and young professionals that comprise a large part of their populations are usually the early adopters. And historical urban centers are also the ones that tend to have outdated and oftentimes byzantine local codes.

"It's really a reflection of cultural shifts that are happening in cities globally. As society is speeding up, people are expecting services are their beck and call," Rainwater said. "The landscape is constantly shifting. ... Cities are actually working fairly swiftly to address these issues."

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Emilio Alcalde, Krishna Mahon, A&E Olé Networks Brazil, on Brazil's pay TV market

A&E Olé Networks - a joint venture between AETN and Ole Communications - operates channels such as A&E, History and Bio across Latin America, playing an important role in circulation of US and domestic programming throughout the region.

The company established a new office in Brazil in 2012 in order to increase production of original Brazilian content and currently has a 6% share of the Brazilian pay TV market.

In the opening session of the RioMarket TV Seminars on Wednesday, A&E Olé Networks' Original Content Director for Brazil, Krishna Mahon took part in the panel dedicated to "How to meet the programming profile and production costs of a TV channel".

Variety interviewed Krishna Mahon, together with Emilio Alcalde - A&E Ole Networks' General Manager for Brazil - posing 10 questions about how they view the Brazilian pay TV market and the overall growth potential of A&E Olé Networks Brazil.

Emilio, what share does A&E Olé networks have in Brazil's pay-TV market?

Our share of audience January to June 2014 is 6%, (YTD) including A&E, History and the launch of the new brands, Lifetime and H2, adding the potential for significant growth in audience for the near future.

What are the main bases for your success in the Brazilian market?

I believe the main bases for the success in the Brazilian market are the great programming coming from A&E International, strong adaptation of content, localization and digital/marketing presence.

Without any doubt all of our great brands, especially History, which is one of the pay TV leaders, have a strong presence in the market. Earlier this year we welcomed Rick Dale, from American Restoration, in a consumer event at São Paulo where we had over 20,000 fans come to meet them in a local mall. There is also a great potential for A&E's new tagline 'Be Original' as well the launch of Lifetime and H2 channels this year.

We have a great team of professionals who are engaged with the brands, and programming strategies which are tailor made by Brazilians for Brazilian audience, based on the A&E's recognized brand series, local productions and local acquisitions. And of course, we have the esteemed commitment of the A+E Network's top management to support development of the market.

How do you position your activities in Brazil in comparison with the rest of A+E in Latin America?

There are not a lot of big differences in the activities that we develop in Brazil with the rest of Latin America, besides the language. We focus our energies on positioning our group as leaders in the market as we do in other countries, developing strategies to grow our business in distribution, brand positioning, ad sales, original productions, digital and social media platforms.

What have been your principal experiences in screening shows from Brazilian independent producers?

There are not a lot of options for acquisitions currently in the market, and that's a real challenge for all the networks. Having said that, we had good numbers with "Investigação Criminal" and "Polícia 24h", both acquisitions aired on A&E. Same happens with our original productions for A&E and History.

Krishna, have these shows benefited from support from the Fundo Sectorial?

No.

How has the 2012 pay TV law changed your business?

Our group understood the importance of localization long before the pay tv law, we knew Brazilian content gives us audience, so we had enough hours on History and A&E to comply with the quota, therefore we believed the law was positive at first.

Unfortunately, other networks that didn't co-produce and were not prepared, had to run to the market and acquire whatever was available. Now there's a lack of options for acquisitions of ready to air series, costs to produce have gone up and ultimately audience suffers the biggest negative impact.

What are the strongest potential areas of growth in Brazilian independent TV production - for example, animation, documentary series, fiction?

We have a great challenge/opportunity with factual programming, especially reality series, as Brazilian producers are still learning how to make them and ensure they don't look or feel fake.

The field that has most business opportunity in terms of licensing products and long shelf life is animation, but unfortunately this is not our area.

Do you have any fixed partnerships or outlook deals with Brazilian independent producers.

We identify best producers depending on the area, and we have several different partners, but nothing fixed, quite the opposite. We don't do two productions at the same time with any partner. Also our doors are open to fresh new ideas and we understand there's a great potential with the new upcoming producers.

Through your partnerships in Latin America do productions from Brazilian independent producers circulate abroad?

Yes, sometimes they do. We try to produce for the entire region, but we understand it depends a lot on the theme. Productions from Mexico or Argentina sometimes do well; sometimes they don't perform as well as in that specific market. With Brazilian content, besides these normal variations, there's a language issue as well as cultural differences, but we do have successful cases.

Do you have further expansion plans in Brazil or other territories that can be disclosed at present?

Our expectations are to continue growing within the Brazilian market.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Bitcoin makes an itty-bitty splash in MA politics

With barely more than a month to go before Election Day, there has been one thing practically nonexistent this cycle: bitcoin.

The virtual currency, which made waves when the Office of Campaign and Political Finance said in January it was A-OK for campaigns to accept, is currently invisible.

That is, with one exception.

State Rep. Josh Cutler (D-Duxbury) has raised an itty-bitty $25 in bitcoin, because why not?

He said one of his constituents, who is all about the currency which is worth as much as people say it is, wanted to try it out.

"I had to turn to my college intern to get the lowdown on bitcoin," Cutler said. "I had heard of bitcoin but I didn't know anything about it."

The controversial currency almost had a brush with the gubernatorial race. In December, an attorney for the Charlie Baker campaign asked campaign finance officials if it would be kosher to hold a fundraiser and ask for bitcoins.

"In a regulated industry it is important for campaigns to remain constantly informed of the impact of new technologies," Baker spokesman Tim Buckley said.

The fundraiser never happened.

Campaign representatives for Baker, Maura Healey, Evan Falchuk and Seth Moulton all said they have not received any contributions in bitcoin. Attorney General Martha Coakley's campaign did not respond.

After OCPF issued its opinion in response to an inquiry from the Massachusetts Pirate Party, the office said campaigns could add the bitcoin booty to its treasure chests, as long as it is converted to USD within five days and is within the contribution limits.

Still, the finance watchdogs closely monitored bitcoin in the following months, including when the founder of one of the largest bitcoin exchanges was found dead, according to a Herald public records request.

The same day the advisory opinion was issued, the Sacramento Kings became the first professional sports team to accept bitcoin.

"The day will go down in bitcoin infamy," OCPF legal counsel Maura Cronin wrote in an email to OCPF spokesman Jason Tait.

If the last nine months are any indication, that is just a bit off-track.

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APP helps EMTs alert hospitals

For emergency medical technicians, every bit of information can be the difference between life and death.

A MassChallenge finalist called Twiage has developed a mobile app that can help. With just the touch of a button or voice-activated Google Glass, EMTs can use the app to send hospitals videos of patients and any injuries, voice memos with their symptoms and vital signs, and electrocardiograms, or EKGs, a test that checks for problems with the electrical activity of the heart.

All of the information is then pre-transcribed on a dashboard for doctors and nurses to see before patients arrive at the hospital.

"With a two-way radio, 20 percent of the time the hospital couldn't hear what I was saying, so they couldn't prepare for the patient until we arrived," said Crystal Law, an MIT-trained engineer and former EMT. "I thought, what if we could use the technology people use today for fun, for something as important as an emergency?"

Law teamed up with Dr. YiDing Yu, a Harvard physician, and John Rodley, an Android and Google Glass developer, to found Twiage, one of 128 finalists now competing for a share of more than $1 million in prize money through the MassChallenge start-up accelerator.

For the past two months, the app has been tested by South Shore Hospital and three paramedics, with plans to expand it to more, said Eugene Duffy, emergency medical services manager.

"It's been fantastic," Duffy said. "The quality of information coming from ambulances now is second to none."

Dr. William Tollefsen, the hospital's medical director of emergency medical services, said Twiage has proven especially useful in cases such as acute stroke, where doctors have only a 4 1⁄2-hour window from the time a patient was last seen normal to administer a "clot-busting" drug to prevent damage such as loss of speech or the ability to walk.

"The faster I can get information like the severity of the symptoms and the last time the patient appeared normal, the faster I can activate a neurologist, nurses and a pharmacist," Tollefsen said. "It can make all the difference between a good outcome and results that can be catastrophic."

Twiage also can save hospitals thousands of dollars in false alarms and save patients and their insurers thousands more in unnecessarily long hospitalizations, Law said.

Advance notification of a stroke, for example, can allow hospitals to prepare and reduce the cost of hospitalization by half, or by $10,000, said Dr. Yu, Twiage's chief medical officer.

Twiage will be offering the app to five other hospitals through the end of this year, Law said, and it will be available to all hospitals for a subscription fee by next summer.

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Groceries from local producers

There's a new player in the grocery delivery game, and it's mixing the tech-savvy of Instacart, local sourcing of Whole Foods and low prices to attract Hub consumers.

It's called Watershed Exchange and was launched this month.

"The way we differentiate ourselves from everyone else, is that we want to be a platform for local producers to sell direct to consumers. It's taking a farmer's market to another level. Why shouldn't you be able to access farmed products seven days a week 24 hours a day?" said Ryan Schoen, 32. He and Jeremy Stanfield, 34, came up with the idea while living in New York and working in operations for upscale grocer Dean & DeLuca. They greenlighted the idea in April, raised about $200,000 from angel investors in August and officially launched Watershed Exchange.

Here's how it works: Consumers order food from such vendors as Red's Best Seafood in Boston, or Maple Heights Farm in Westminster from Watershed's mobile-enabled website and then set a delivery window, typically between noon and 5 p.m.

Anything Watershed can't source directly is fulfilled by Pemberton Farms in Cambridge — mainly items such as beer, wine and spirits as the startup doesn't have a liquor license.

When they do source items that are not local, such as oranges, avocados or coffee, their aim is to use Fair Trade products.

"This (service) appeals to anyone who wants to connect more with their food," said Stanfield.

Schoen and Stanfield fill the orders and deliver the goods themselves in a custom bright blue and wood paneled refurbished school bus. So far, they've delivered more than 100 orders in their first three weeks.

Convenient, tech-savvy, local — but how are the prices?

Right now they have fresh Cape Cod scallops on their site for $13-per-lb. vs. Costco's $18-per-lb. frozen. They also have local apples for $1 per lb. "You shouldn't have to pay a premium for convenience," said Schoen.

Local farmers and artisans get 75 cents on the dollar versus the industry standard of 20 cents.

Chalk it up to seriously low overhead. Technology handles most of the transaction, there's no expensive real estate, store front, food waste, register clerks, shelf stockers, etc. And they reduce the distribution cost by dealing directly with the artisan.

"We are trying to create an alternative system to other food delivery services where it's better for the producer of the food to communicate their products directly to the consumer," said Schoen.

Delivery areas include Boston, Metro West, Somerville and Cambridge, with a plan to expand to more communities. The delivery is free for September but will be $5-$10 after the introductory promotion is over.

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Jeep’s brake rotors seem to be failing at warp speed

I have a 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 160,000 miles on it. The problem is with the brake rotors warping. Every time I've had the brakes worked on, they start to pulsate again after a few thousand miles. Last time the dealer installed new pads and rotors, but the same thing happened. Are there certain types of rotors or pads I can use to prevent this?

First, let's review the primary causes of brake rotor warping — excessive heat or manufacturing defect. Seems unlikely you and the many other Jeep owners who've complained about the same problem would continually get faulty replacement rotors.

Thus, focus on excess heat. If a driver consistently brakes late and hard for stops or drags the brakes while driving, the heat buildup in the rotors can eventually cause distortion, uneven wear and warpage. Always brake early and brake lightly whenever possible. And here's a little tip. Once stopped for a light, let the car roll a foot or so forward to move the pads off the "hot spot" on the rotor. During a long stop, do this a couple of times — safely, of course. This reduces "heat soak" in the rotors, where one section is significantly hotter than the rest of the rotor.

Design, manufacturing and mechanical issues can certainly contribute to warped rotors. Undersized calipers and rotors may not be able to dissipate heat fast enough during aggressive braking to prevent eventual warpage. Better quality replacement rotors and pads may help this type of issue. If a mechanical or hydraulic issue is preventing the brake proportioning valve or rear brakes from doing their share, the front brakes can be overworked and overheated in "normal" driving.

Sticky caliper pistons and/or binding caliper slider pins are a primary cause of rotor warpage and uneven rotor wear. An often overlooked cause for warped rotors is improper or uneven torque on the wheel lug nuts. Always — every single time — make sure the wheels are tightened in a symmetrical order in stages to the proper torque specification. Similarly, rust or corrosion between the hub face and rotor can lead to uneven brake wear.

Remember, you will feel a vibration in the pedal or steering wheel when rotors have much more than two-thousandths of an inch of lateral run-out — that's .002"!

A final thought. Proper rotor and pad "bedding" or break-in when new can significantly affect brake performance and life expectancy. Here's how I do it: Find a lightly traveled 45- to 50-mph road. With no vehicles behind you, accelerate up to 45 mph, then brake very firmly down to rolling speed. Repeat this a few times until you smell the tinge of brake heat or feel the beginning of brake fade. Then just cruise along at the speed limit, allowing the brakes to cool back to normal temperature. This process "beds" the brakes, making the pad and rotor surfaces "happy" with each other. Once properly bedded, the brakes should perform well for their full service life.

Need some advice for my daughter and her husband. They bought a 2006 Nissan 350Z — smart folks, 'cause they won't let me drive it. No problems with it, but a headlight quit working. The Nissan dealer wants $1,300 to replace it. Any comment or suggestions? This seems sort of excessive.

I'd suggest that you offer a much less expensive fix in exchange for driving privileges! According to my Alldata automotive database, this Nissan is fitted with xenon HID headlamps. Nissan service bulletin NTB10-061A dated June 2010 suggests that a failed headlamp bulb, about $180, or HID control unit, $400-$500, is the most likely cause of an inoperative headlight. Even with an hour or so of labor, that's a far cry from $1,300 to replace the entire headlight assembly. There's a very good chance you can solve the problem, save them money and, most important, end up with driving privileges! Remember, I'm an instructor for the Skip Barber Racing School — you'd have lots of fun learning how to properly drive that performance car!

Paul Brand, author of "How to Repair Your Car," is an automotive troubleshooter, driving instructor and former race-car driver. Readers may write to him at: Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn., 55488 or via email at paulbrand@
startribune.com. Please explain the problem in detail and include a daytime phone number.

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ESPN films is a triple winner at second La Costa Film Festival

ESPN Films was the big winner at the second La Costa Film Festival, with the jury picking "Brothers in Exile" as top feature documentary and "Tommy and Frank" (from the "30 for 30" series) as best short docu. "Brothers" was also given the audience award in the docu category.

Writer-director Ron Shelton received the Ambassador of Sports Award, for work on pics including "Bull Durham," "Tin Cup" and "White Men Can't Jump." Ed Harris was given the Legacy Award.

Seven audience awards were handed out. Aside from "Brothers," the winners were "Una Vida" (directed by Richie Adams), narrative feature; "White Lies" (Dana Rotberg), foreign narrative feature; "Bella Vita" (Jason Baffa), foreign docu feature; "Tandem" (Matthew Douglas Helfgot and Jared Hillman), short film; and "Bis Gleich" (Benjamin Wolff), foreign short film. Full-length surf docu "H2MexicO" (Brent Deal) received honorable mention.

The four-day fest screened 43 films from 13 countries. The event was held at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, CA. Mandalay Sports Media helped curate the festival's sports themed narrative, documentary and shorts programs.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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Air France pilots end strike after 14 days

PARIS — Air France's leading pilots union on Sunday announced an end to a 14-day strike that grounded roughly half of the airline's flights, stranded passengers worldwide and led to stern shows of frustration by the French prime minister.

After a late-night, 15-hour negotiating session with management, leaders of the SNPL pilot union walked away with no accord, but with the realization that the strike "is not an end in itself," said union spokesman Antoine Amar. The union was "taking up its responsibilities" and ending the walkout so that service can now resume and negotiations can continue peaceably, he said.

Air France, in a statement, said that service would "progressively" start returning to normal on Tuesday — meaning that flights already canceled between now and then won't be reinstated. The company hailed the end of the strike, saying it "will have been costly and damaging. It has only lasted too long."

Alexandre de Juniac, chairman and CEO of parent company Air France-KLM, said management team members "are aware of the trauma that our customers, employees and partners just lived through," according to the statement.

At the center of the standoff are Air France's ambitions to develop a low-cost affiliate, Transavia, to tap into new markets in both France and elsewhere in Europe and better compete at a time when budget airlines have cut into the market share once dominated by giant European carriers like Air France.

The pilots union said it didn't oppose those plans to build the new business, but rejected the labor conditions that management had planned. They started the strike two weeks ago out of concerns that management was looking for a way to outsource their jobs to countries with lower taxes and labor costs.

In a tactical retreat, the carrier's management offered Wednesday to scrap a central part of the plan to shift most of its European operations to Transavia. But the pilots remained unsatisfied, saying the contracts sought for the low-cost carrier's operations in France alone were insufficient.

Air France, in its statement, "confirmed its decision to continue its accelerated development of Transavia in France, without delay" — which suggested that issues remain unresolved. The carrier said it is sticking to plans to create 1,000 jobs in France through Transavia carrier, including 250 pilot positions.

Several would-be passengers interviewed by The Associated Press expressed frustration and anger during the strike; some grumbled about the tendency of many French workers to strike — and snarl services in the process.

Speaking to reporters Sunday, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said: "This strike was misunderstood, it was corporatist. It was selfish."

"It inconvenienced hundreds of thousands — millions — of consumers. It inconvenienced other Air France staffers who made a number of sacrifices over the years. This strike costs a lot in terms of the company's image," he said. "And it has left a trail of division, fracture within its ranks."

Air France-KLM said previously that the walkout was costing up to 20 million euros ($25 million) a day. The French state holds a 16-percent share of the company, and appoints three board members, a spokeswoman said.

Valls, a Socialist, said the Transavia plan was "indispensable" — and sought to parlay Air France's woes as a metaphor for France's need for reforms more broadly.

"We are in a competitive universe, the low-cost one, and it needs to be faced with the proper weapons," Valls said. "It shows our country needs reforms at every level, and it's true especially in the transportation sector."

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Why Japan's Softbank wants to buy Dreamworks Animation

With its former focus on software wholesaling and its makeover as a technology investment holding company, Japan's Softbank has rarely been sexy enough to make the front pages of the entertainment press.

Now the company's mooted bid for DreamWorks Animation has changed that overnight.

The company's expansion over the past decade into telephony and broadband Internet provision - both in Japan and in the U.S. - gives it the physical infrastructure from which to expand massively into entertainment software.

That's a classic case of having a pipeline and then seeking the content to deliver through it.

Owning a mini-studio with big brand name content that can be propagated into millions of homes, and onto tens of millions of handheld devices, is not a difficult stretch of the imagination. Asian conglomerates love that kind of logic. And Softbank has over 100 million subscribers worldwide.

Plus, for a group of Softbank's size and inclination, DWA would be a steal. The reported $3.4 billion price tag being discussed, compares with DWA's Friday market cap of $1.89 billion. Either way, that's less than the $4.6 billion first day capital gains Softbank enjoyed last week from the IPO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, in which it owns a 32% stake.

On the side-lines of Hollywood until now, Softbank is very much a known quantity on Wall Street, as is its founder and CEO Masayoshi Son.

His career has known some close calls, but following the Alibaba flotation last week, Son was again crowned by Bloomberg as the richest man in Japan.

Two years ago Softbank burst into the spotlight in the U.S. with its acquisition of an 80% stake in laggardly telecoms and Internet giant Sprint Nextel, for which it paid $21.6 billion.

Six years earlier it had made a similarly audacious takeover of Vodafone Japan, a cell phone group which trailed the market leaders NTT and KDDI. Renamed Softbank Mobile Corp, it clawed its way back into shape by being culturally different from the incumbents. (A month after the Fukushima disaster Softbank cheekily offered a phone with a built-in Geiger counter.)

Through price cutting, good cost management and for a couple of years being the only network in Japan to offer Apple's iPhones, it managed to grow revenue per subscriber in an otherwise flat market. Profits between 2006 and 2013 grew five-fold.

These days NTT DoCoMo and KDDI both sell iPhones, but controlling DWA would likely give Softbank Mobile (and Sprint) another angle. Conceivably it could have first call on "Shrek," "Kung Fu Panda" and "Dragon" phones and software. According to Alcaraz Research, Softbank is already the world's top grossing publisher of mobile games, the segment of the games market that is growing faster than either consoles or online.

Japanese companies have a very poor track record of acquisitions in the U.S. But there is reason to think that Softbank may be different.

In business-conservative Japan where most decisions are made by committee, Son enjoys status as a maverick, American-style entrepreneur. And he has the social media following to prove it.

And, in truth, has Son never been far away from California's twin sisters Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Steve Jobs and Michael Ovitz were both close associates. Son recently even took the 'Ice Bucket Challenge.'

Born in Japan of Korean descent and spending his early years in considerable poverty, Son started school in the U.S. age 16. He later attended University of California at Berkeley. Showing considerable entrepreneurial flair, he made two fortunes before he was 20 - one in language translation units, the other in video game devices.

After early adventures in software, computer publishing and trade shows, Softbank became a business and investment broker, persuading companies including Sony, NEC, Cisco, Fujitsu and Toshiba to co-operate and invest in a venture headed by the Softbank-owned arm of U.S. systems integrator Businessland.

In other sectors, Son probably moved too early, though they are business areas that 20 years later are now booming. Between 1991 and 1995 he tried to build an online shopping business, called Systembank. And in 1994 he persuaded NTT to invest in a start-up video-on-demand operation. Both were stymied by poor bandwidth and consumer conservatism.

Softbank's first investment in Yahoo came in 1995 when Yahoo was a directory service and had not evolved into a portal.

The following year Softbank was a founder investor in pay-TV player Japan Sky Broadcasting, alongside Rupert Murdoch and News Corp.

By 1999, at the height of the Internet bubble, and after amassing stakes in ZD Net, Yahoo Japan and some 100 other tech ventures in Japan and the U.S., Softbank had a market capitalization of $190 billion. The company lost 90% of its value in the subsequent rout.

After the collapse Son steered the company more towards Internet provision, services and telecoms.

Softbank made its first investment in Alibaba, for just $20 million, in 2000. Its 32% stake is now worth $71 billion.

There may be a China angle to a Softbank takeover of DWA too. That huge position in Alibaba could give great access to market for the nascent Oriental DreamWorks in Shanghai, which is venturing into live action features, TV series, short-form animation and Internet content -- as well as theme parks and animated feature production.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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