DreamWorks Animation is reportedly in sales talks with Japanese telecommunications company Softbank.
The Hollywood Reporter claims the telecom, which owns cellular service provider Sprint, offered to purchase the studio for $32 a share. That's up $10 from what it closed at on Friday and would value the company at $3.4 billion.
DreamWorks had looked around for a buyer about two years ago with no luck, according to Los Angeles Times.
But Softbank has been making headlines recently for a string of acquisitions as it tries to expand and diversify its operations.
Two months ago, it dropped out of talks to buy T-Mobile after regulators expressed concern over antitrust violations.
But it's also had some good decisions from over a decade ago pay off recently. It invested $20 million into Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba back in 2000. Now, its shares are worth about $60 billion. That's some pretty forward thinking.
The payout even made Softbank's owner, Masayoshi Son, the richest man in Japan.
But what does a telecommunications and Internet company want with Hollywood's smallest studio?
Well, DreamWorks has had some big success stories lately, including "The Croods" and "How To Train Your Dragon 2." The latter took in $611 million worldwide.
But along with those comes flops like "Rise of The Guardians" and "Turbo."
Although it does own some incredibly successful animated franchises, such as "Shrek," "Madagascar" and "Kung Fu Panda." Plus, it's recently been trying to expand into television programming.
The Wall Street Journal says the DreamWorks acquisition would allow Softbank to expand while giving its mobile networks a competitive edge thanks to the new, exclusive content.
Neither of the companies have commented on the story yet, and it's unclear when or if a deal will be signed.
This video contains an image from Getty Images.
