(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)DreamWorks Animation SKG (NASDAQ:DWA) shares were the top gainer on the S&P Midcap 400 index on Thursday. Clocking a 25% advance was not bad on a day when the overall ticker was down. It was an action-packed day for the maker of films like The Road to El Dorado Chicken Run Madagascar Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon as well as Oscar winners The Prince of Egypt Shrek and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Comcast's (NASDAQ:CMCSA) NBC Universal unit is buying DreamWorks Animation for $3.8bn. The Nasdaq-listed stock has been the subject of previous takeover buzz. But this it is different. Both the game's and the predator's boards of directors have approved the deal after days of whispers. DreamWorks stockholders will receive $41 for each share they own. That's a 24% premium to the company's Wednesday closing price of $32.20 and around a 50% mark-up on where the stock stood at the start of the week before all the rumours started. DreamWorks will become part of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group which includes Universal Pictures. Once the deal closes DreamWorks co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg will become chairman of DreamWorks New Media. He'll also serve as a consultant to NBCUniversal a unit of Comcast Corp. The deal is expected to be wrapped up by calendar year end. The deal makes an awful lot of sense to Comcast - even if there is a hefty reverse fee to be paid if the parties walk away deal-less. Comcast may be best-known as a cable distributor. But two things have been increasingly looking large in its balance sheet in recent years. Firstly it now provides broadband internet and its new subscribers are overwhelmingly skewed to that rather than cable television. Secondly Comcast wants to bulk up on its activities in animation and with DreamWorks it can do that big time. Comcast already has its own feature animation studio Illumination Entertainment which is a division of NBC Universal best-known for the Despicable Me franchise. The Los Angeles Times noted that such an acquisition could help Comcast further expand into China due to DreamWorks' presence there. In fact DreamWorks has a satellite studio in both China and India - giving Comcast a strong presence in both major BRIC nations. Comcast like mobile phone operators a decade ago has realised that future sales and revenue will be dependent not on selling distribution and infrastructure but content. Entertainment has a loyalty following and it is content that offers to a creative edge to keep bringing in custom. Given that the future holds a clear challenge to Disney the deal is unlikely to come in for heat from analysts for being too generous. Comcast's raid is truly swashbuckling stuff. And pumping family content is a sure-fire winner in the making. DreamWorks shares were up 24.1% at $39.96 while Comcast was up 0.1% at $61.38.
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