At one point in time, Sprint’s parent company SoftBank had considered acquiring T-Mobile, but it seems that the breakup fee was something that either company could agree upon which ultimately led to the deal falling through. However it seems that SoftBank is still set on acquiring companies if a recent report from The Wall Street Journal is to be believed, SoftBank is said to be eyeing animation studio DreamWorks Animation.
For those unfamiliar with DreamWorks, they are the animation studio behind popular animated movies such as How To Train Your Dragon and Shrek. The reason behind SoftBank’s interest is because the company’s CEO Masayoshi Son wants exclusive content that would make signing up with Sprint a more attractive option, thus allowing it to compete against the bigger carriers like AT&T and Verizon.
It would be interesting to see what becomes of this, and who knows, perhaps down the line we might start seeing Sprint phones coming preloaded with some of DreamWorks’ animations, or they could purchase them at discount rates. DreamWorks has stated in the past that they want to expand its presence in Asia, so the acquisition by a Japanese company could certainly help with that.
Naturally neither side has offered to comment on the rumor, so do take it with a grain of salt for now, but what do you guys think? Is the acquisition of DreamWorks by SoftBank a good idea for both companies?