Alias|Wavefront has announced a strategic alliance with mental images, makers of the world-renowned, mental ray renderer. The two companies will work together to develop a mental ray rendering option for Maya. "Image quality is a top priority to CG industry professionals," explained Peter Mehlstaeubler, vice president of product development at Alias|Wavefront. "With this priority in mind, Alias|Wavefront has pursued an aggressive rendering development path, one which will soon be expanded to encompass a mental ray solution.

Ubi Soft Entertainment, an international developer and publisher of interactive games, surpassed its predicted sales growth of 25% for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001. Ubi Soft reported net consolidated sales of US$236 million (259.8 million euros) up 39.4% over the previous year. This growth came in spite of a 5% decline in the video games world market for the same year. Net income for Ubi Soft during the fiscal year decreased to $4.2 million (4.6 million euros). This was attributed to slow sales in the next generation market.

San Francisco’s animation studio Wild Brain, Inc. is expanding its global operation with the launch of a subsidiary in Munich, Germany. Wild Trixx Media GmbH will identify co-production partners for television and feature film projects, coordinate sales and merchandising for the company’s future and existing programming, such as Wild Brain’s new 26-episode series POOCHINI, throughout Europe, and attract European-based commercials.

d-2, a Dallas-based interactive, multimedia and Web development firm, has formally announced its grand opening and spin-off from its former parent, D Animation, one of the most successful interactive, multimedia and Web development firms in Texas, having served over 300 clients, including American Airlines, Canon, Anderson Consulting and Nortel. d-2 began operations on February 15, 2001 and is currently on track to exceed $2 million in yearly billings. d-2 will focus its business services on the real estate, telecommunications, technology and manufacturing industries. Darjon R.

Licensing proves to be a viable and growing industry, according to the most recent study sponsored by the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association (LIMA), in conjunction with the Yale School of Management and the Harvard Business School. According to the report, property and trademark owners received royalties of $5.84 billion from manufacturers who paid for the right to use trademarks, characters, logos and artwork to sell products in the United States in 2000, representing a $248 million increase (4.4%) in the last year.

The Harvey Entertainment Company announced on June 26, 2001 that they have completed their sale of Harvey’s classic cartoon characters, contracts and related assets, to Classic Media, LLC, in exchange for approximately US$17,000,000 and the assumption of certain liabilities. Actual funding of the transaction took place on Friday, June 22, 2001. Harvey has also officially changed its name to Sunland Entertainment Co. Inc. with the new OTC Bulletin Board stock symbol of SUNE. The name and stock symbol change will take effect Wednesday, June 27, 2001.

DIC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. has entered into an agreement to purchase the assets of Golden Books Family Entertainment, Inc., in a deal valued at $170 million. The deal entails a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Golden Books and its domestic subsidiaries, with DIC petitioning to purchase the company’s assets. Golden Books’ operations will continue as usual during the court and sale process, which is expected to take approximately 60 days. Golden Book’s assets are quite extensive.

CINAR Corporation announced that it has reached an agreement with Telefilm Canada to make full restitution for all investments and other financial subsidies made by Telefilm Canada in CINAR’s productions that have been decertified, or for productions for which final certification will not be granted by the Canadian Audio-visual Certification Office (CAVCO). Under the terms of the agreement, CINAR will repay Telefilm Canada approximately $2,594,000 in full reimbursement of investments and subsidies including interest.

Midway Games Inc. has announced that as a result of decreasing demand in the coin-operated arcade videogame market, it is getting out of that business. The company is now focusing its game development efforts exclusively on games for next-generation home videogame platforms, including the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance. The move is expected to mean a layoff of fewer than 60 people, and a primarily non-cash pretax charge of less than $8 million in the quarter ending June 30, 2001.

According to a June 21, 2001 report in the Los Angeles Times, Ben Stein, host of the Comedy Central TV game show "Win Ben Stein's Money" has sued Shockwave.com for breach of contract. In the suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Stein claims he is owed $212,250 for his work in helping to develop an online quiz show. In exchange for the use of his name, voice and likeness, Stein reportedly was to receive 75,000 shares of Shockwave stock valued at 50 cents a share, with an option to sell back the stock at nearly $3 per share. The show has yet to launch on the Web.