Walt Disney Co. has announced that it will close down the Walt Disney Internet Group and its Go.com portal. As a result, 400 out of nearly 2,000 employees will be laid off. Shares in the Walt Disney Internet Group will be converted in to Disney common stock. As a result, Disney will take a US$790 million second-quarter charge, or 37 cents per share, for the issuing of 8.1 million new shares in the entertainment mega-firm. In addition, Disney will also take a $25-$50 million charge for severance packages and other additional costs.

Sony Computer Entertainment has spun off PlayStation.com as a separate arm of the mega-firm to handle the company's online game initiatives. The Foster City, California-based division will oversee Sony's e-commerce and online distribution of Sony's games, music and movies. On Tuesday, January 30, 2001, the Website will begin to sell the tough-to-obtain PlayStation 2 gaming console. There are already plans in the works to spin the division off in a public stock offering or tracking stock.

EM.TV & Merchandising's supervisory board has announced that it is still debating whether to accept or reject German media conglomerate KirchGroup's financial rescue offer. The deal would give Kirch a 25% voting share in EM.TV and half of the company's 50% stake in Formula One racing group SLEC. In addition, Kirch would buy out EM.TV's half of kids television rights group Junior TV for US$550 million in cash. However, recently another offer has come onto the table for EM.TV. Herbert Kloiber's Tele-Munchen Group and U.S.

Pukka recently launched Pukka Group, a company that will be divided into three subsidiary companies: Pukka Films, Pukka Post and Pukka Web. The group's headquarters will be located in the new Portland Mews building (UK), which has just undergone a £1 million (US$1.47 million) refurbishment. Containing the latest in post-production equipment, Pukka will deliver integrated digital media solutions to its clients - producing, editing, packaging and distributing video, film or new media product in the corporate, broadcast and feature markets.

In another move to maximize its remaining cash flow, Icebox.com has laid off 11 employees, over 25% of its staff. Currently, Icebox is in the middle of a US$10 million financing negotiation with some of its initial backers. CEO and co-founder Steve Stanford said, "It's going; it's just not going as quickly as we would have liked." In November, Icebox cut 50 staffers in their first attempt to cool down their capital burn rate [AWN 11/29/00]. Laid-off staff members were given their last paycheck, their computer and their Aeron ergonomic chair.

The actresses behind the Powerpuff Girls are in a real battle of their own and it's not with Mojo Jo Jo – but Cartoon Network. The AOL Time Warner-owned animation network has put out a call for sound a-likes to imitate the Powerpuff Girls for the upcoming feature film. Apparently, Tara Strong (Bubbles), Catherine Cavadini (Blossom) and E.G. Daily (Buttercup) are in heated discussions over the financial terms they were offered.

AWN's stock ticker features the most prominent publicly traded companies in the world of animation. AWN, Inc. makes available certain financial information from third party information providers. AWN does not give advice in any such fields, and has not reviewed, and in no way endorses the validity of such data. This information is provided solely as a means to keep our readers informed of the market performance and trends of certain companies. AWN strongly suggests that one seek advice from a competent professional regarding any investment or financial issues.

Angry EM.TV shareholders are stating that the company should pay them DM35 million (US$16.8 million) in damages for financial mismanagement and deliberately misleading the investors. Shareholders, represented by lawyers Tilp & Kaelberer and Klaus Rotter, said they would sue EM.TV if the firm doesn't comply with their out-of-court settlement. The German children's production house has refused to discuss a settlement until an investigation by the Munich state prosecutor's office into the company's actions is completed.

Z.com is in need of an Internet savior. In October, Z.com laid off 50 employees, which was most of its staff. The Web entertainment site is looking around town for a possible merger partner. The company's major backers include Internet incubator Idealab, Basic Entertainment, 3 Arts Entertainment, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Maverick Records partner Guy Oseary. Z.com CEO Joe DiNunzio told THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER that, "We're exploring strategic alternatives that include mergers or bringing in new equity partners."

Entertaindom.com has become the first casualty of the AOL Time Warner merger. As part of overall company trimming, Entertaindom will fold up operations on February 1st. The content from the site will most likely be combined with series on the Warner Bros. Online site. How many employees will lose their jobs is yet to be known. However, insiders say that over the next few weeks there will be major cuts throughout Time Warner. Already 400 staffers have been cut from news division CNN. The completion of the merger has long loomed over Entertaindom.

EM.TV's CEO Thomas Haffa and deputy chairman Florian Haffa have admitted that they sold shares in the company without consulting the firm's financial advisory, WestLB. The sale may be a violation of German stock exchange rules. Thomas sold DM40 million (US$19.2 million) worth of EM.TV shares while Florian's amount was not released. Up until Tuesday, Thomas had insisted that he informed WestLB of the sales, but now says he only informed the bank of his intention of the sales and did not place the move in writing.

Macromedia Inc., creator of Flash software and parent to Shockwave.com, has announced that it will acquire Web content management company Allaire Corp. in a US$360 million cash and stock deal. Macromedia will exchange 0.2 shares of its stock plus $3 in cash for each share in Allaire. Macromedia CEO Rob Burgess will continue as CEO of the new combined firm, with Allaire's CTO Jeremy Allaire talking over the same role at Macromedia. The combined company will retain the Macromedia name.

Germany-based children's TV and licensing firm, BKN International, has acquired the operational assets of its former parent Los Angeles-based BKN Inc. BKNI will pay US$25.5 million over the next two years to gain the rights to BKN's fifth largest animation portfolio in the U.S. In addition, BKNI will pay $2.6 million in cash for BKN Inc.'s L.A. studio and its trademark. Therefore, BKN Inc. will only exist as a holding company with a 34% share in BKN International. In a separate deal, Sony Pictures Family Entertainment has purchased 3.8% of BKNI from BKN Inc.

AWN's stock ticker features the most prominent publicly traded companies in the world of animation. AWN, Inc. makes available certain financial information from third party information providers. AWN does not give advice in any such fields, and has not reviewed, and in no way endorses the validity of such data. This information is provided solely as a means to keep our readers informed of the market performance and trends of certain companies. AWN strongly suggests that one seek advice from a competent professional regarding any investment or financial issues.

The Nasdaq Stock Exchange has officially delisted Film Roman Inc. shares from their Small Cap Market. The move is not unexpected due to Film Roman's failure to meet the Exchange's minimum bid requirements. The final share price on the Nasdaq for the company's shares was 56 cents. After being delisted, Film Roman's common stock was immediately eligible for trading on the OTC Bulletin Board under the new symbol ROMN.OB. The OTC Bulletin Board is a regulated quotation service that displays real-time quotes, last-sale prices and volume information in over-the-counter (OTC) equity securities.

Mondo Media has announced that it has obtained over US$17 million in its third round of equity financing. The round was led by SBVC with supporting investment for global expansion from Venturepark and others. Returning investors included Foundation Capital, Sofinnova Ventures and Red Rock Ventures. As part of the round, Carl Rosendahl, principal managing director for SBVC, has joined Mondo Media's board of directors. The money will be used to continue Mondo Media's current productions, develop new ones and expand the company's presence in Europe.

The Federal Communications Commission gave the final approval to the US$106 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner. The deal will give AOL access to Time Warner's high-speed cable lines allowing the merged company to leverage content to AOL subscribers. The two conditions put on the merger opened Time Warner's cable lines to other Internet Service Providers and stipulated that any upgrades in AOL's instant messenger service would allow communication with other instant messenger services. Currently, AOL instant messenger users can only communicate to other AOL subscribers.

Toms River, New Jersey-based Theme Studios has opened a new visual design studio. The company will focus on the production of graphics, illustrations and 2D3D visuals. Theme currently creates projects for distribution on the Web or in digital formats. For more information contact Robert Breisch at: 882 Salem Dr., Toms River, New Jersey 08753; Tel.: (732) 270-1220; E-mail: design@themestudios.com; or Web: www.themestudios.com.

German post-production house Das Werk has acquired Centropolis Effects, the f/x arm of Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin's Centropolis Entertainment. The deal was for stock. Centropolis Effects will still be based in Los Angeles and Centropolis Entertainment will use the F/X firm for their visual effects needs. The purchase will allow Centropolis Effects to expand into commercials and music videos. President Mark Franco, head of production Aaron Dem and CFO Amir Nasrabadi will continue on in their current posts. Emmerich and Devlin will stay on Centropolis Effects' board of directors.

AWN's stock ticker features the most prominent publicly traded companies in the world of animation. AWN, Inc. makes available certain financial information from third party information providers. AWN does not give advice in any such fields, and has not reviewed, and in no way endorses the validity of such data. This information is provided solely as a means to keep our readers informed of the market performance and trends of certain companies. AWN strongly suggests that one seek advice from a competent professional regarding any investment or financial issues.