CMCSA Comcast Corporation

By Erich Schwartzel 

Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal is eliminating about 200 jobs at DreamWorks Animation SKG, the animation studio it acquired earlier this year for $3.8 billion, the company said Thursday.

In a letter to employees, Jeff Shell, chairman of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, said the job cuts were mostly corporate overhead positions and in the distribution and consumer-products divisions. Those are "areas where we can fully integrate operations with NBCUniversal," he wrote.

DreamWorks Animation employed about 2,000 people after its last round of job cuts, which eliminated 500 jobs in early 2015 following a string of box-office misfires.

The cuts are another indication of how NBCUniversal plans to integrate DreamWorks Animation into its entertainment fold, which also includes Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, the animation studio behind the "Despicable Me" films.

Last month, NBCUniversal announced a leadership structure at DreamWorks that kept the "Shrek" studio separate from Illumination, keeping the heads of DreamWorks' biggest divisions in place. No role at DreamWorks has been announced for Illumination Chief Executive Chris Meledandri.

The people whose jobs are being eliminated work at DreamWorks' main campus in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, Calif. Those leaving the company will be notified this week and may stay on for several months, Mr. Shell's letter said.

As part of the acquisition, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg left the studio to become chairman of DreamWorks New Media, which oversees NBCUniversal interests in various digital-media companies.

Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 16, 2016 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)

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