NEW YORK (AFP) - DreamWorks Animation, which in the past decade has become one of the leaders in film animation, made a move toward going public by filing estimated terms of its initial public offering (IPO).
The company that made "Shrek 2" and the recent "Shark Tale" said in a filing with US regulators that it plans to offer 29 million shares at 23 to 25 dollars each with expected proceeds of about 700 million dollars in its initial public offering.
The filing signals that DreamWorks will soon start its IPO road show and go public within a few weeks.
It comes as "Shark Tale" set an October box office record with 49 million dollars in receipts over its opening weekend. In its second week, the animated film brought in about 32 million dollars and has total proceeds nearing 100 million.
DreamWorks Animation, a unit of the Hollywood motion picture studio by the same name, said its total shares outstanding will be 105.6 million, including 57 million Class A shares and 48 million Class B shares.
The price range pegs DreamWorks market value at around 2.5 billion dollars, about half of the 4.56 billion figure for rival Pixar.
DreamWorks reported net income of 121 million dollars and operating revenue of 341 million dollars in the first six months of the year as it rode the success of its "Shrek" franchise.
"Shrek 2", released in May, has become the third-highest grossing film of all time at about 440 million behind "Titanic" and "Star Wars," according to Boxofficemojo.
The company, controlled by Hollywood moguls Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, filed to go public in July.
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen will sell 2.33 million shares in the DreamWorks Animation IPO for proceeds of about 55 million dollars.
Allen sits on the board of DreamWorks Animation. He also co-founded and has been the primary financial investor in DreamWorks Studios since its founding in October 1994.