MUMBAI: Devine Entertainment Corporation, seeking to capitalize on the burgeoning global demand for high quality film and television content, has entered into a key distribution agreement with Film Ideas Inc., a major US distributor of educational film and television programming, to deliver Devine’s core content library to the American educational marketplace through public instructional television stations and a variety of other non-theatrical avenues.
Under the agreement, Chicago-based Film Ideas Inc. will exclusively distribute Devine’s award-winning content library through PBS and other instructional television stations. These stations greatly enable the broadening of Devine’s programming reach, as they include closed circuit television broadcast directly into US elementary and middle school classrooms, as well as local cable stations. The effect of this arrangement is similar to syndication in the non-educational TV business.
The grassroots nature of this type of broadcast exposure will greatly assist Devine in its ongoing sales via DVD and other media.
The new agreement represents a significant achievement in Devine’s strategic plan to capitalize on its core library of proprietary films and other programs, which includes such recent additions as Marsalis on Music, a four-DVD boxed set in which jazz great Wynton Marsalis explains the fundamentals of music to middle school audiences.
“We are excited about our partnership with Devine Entertainment to bring their tremendous productions to the instructional television and educational media center markets,” said Film Ideas managing director Bob Norris. “The curriculum content, melded with an appealing story line and faultless production values afforded by multimillion-dollar production budgets rarely seen in the education market, has resulted in programs that are guaranteed to be well received in our markets.”
Film Ideas will also have non-exclusive rights to many physical distribution channels like satellite, distance learning systems, public and private schools, colleges, universities, Circulating Media Centers, agencies that serve school-age children, day care centers, public libraries, summer camps, penal institutions, the transportation industry, health related agencies, business and industry, museums, and film societies.
“Film Ideas have other compelling areas of expertise in addition to their abilities in Instructional TV,” notes Devine Marketing VP Glenn Sernyk. “They will be a strong addition to our non-exclusive distributor network.”
“We’re excited to close this potentially valuable agreement with Film Ideas,” said Devine Entertainment president and chief executive officer David Devine. “We anticipate that their efforts and expertise drawn from 29 years in the educational and non-traditional markets will enable Devine to see substantial new revenues from our library of film and television titles. As all of our titles have already returned their initial investments, this is a very bottom-line friendly arrangement.”
Autodesk plans to acquire Kynogon SA
MUMBAI: Autodesk has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Kynogon SA, the privately held maker of Kynapse artificial intelligence middleware. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Kynapse has been used to develop more than 65 AAA game titles, including Alone in the Dark 5, Crackdown, Fable 2 and The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. Kynapse gives characters spatial awareness, enabling them to realistically navigate digital environments.
“The future of videogames is about sophisticated game play, with more believable characters and environments,” said Autodesk Media & Entertainment senior vice president Marc Petit. “Our goal is to simplify videogame development by providing cutting-edge tools to create, animate and integrate 3D assets into game engines. The acquisition of Kynogon is a key component in reaching this goal.”
Petit added, “Videogame technology is the beachhead for real-time simulation applications and advanced computing. In addition to game development, Kynogon’s products are being used for defense and security simulations, such as mission planning and military operations on urban terrain.”
Autodesk expects the acquisition to be completed within the next three months. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions. Autodesk will provide further details about the acquisition once the transaction has closed. For more information please visit www.autodesk.com/kynogon.
This transaction is expected to decrease targeted GAAP earnings per diluted share by $0.01 to $0.02 in fiscal 2009. Excluding in-process R&D expenses and the amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, this transaction is expected to have no impact on targeted non-GAAP earnings per diluted share for fiscal 2009.
