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 LOS ANGELES (AP) - Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen tried to harness their collective star power in 1994 to do what hadn't been done in more than 70 years — start a Hollywood studio from scratch. They called it DreamWorks SKG, the letters standing for the last names of the founders.
Sunday, DreamWorks ended its 11-year run as an independent company by agreeing to be sold to Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc., in a deal valued at $1.6 billion. The sale highlights the enormous, perhaps insurmountable, challenges facing an independent company with hopes of competing against massive media conglomerates.
"It's very hard for anyone to enter the business from the ground up," said Harold Vogel, author of the book "Entertainment Industry Economics."
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