Animation Needs Make Studios Hot Customers

When Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina strolled the red carpet with DreamWorks SKG founder Jeffrey Katzenberg at the Academy Awards this year, her turn in the limelight was more about gigabytes than glamour.

Hollywood studios such as DreamWorks have become coveted customers for HP and its rivals as the shift to digital animation demands sophisticated computing know-how. Fiorina wants to make sure that HP — and not competitors such as IBM and Sun Microsystems — is the heir to one-time digital-effects powerhouse Silicon Graphics.

Thanks in part to a collaboration with HP, the animation division of DreamWorks SKG is having a good year. It has launched two major movies in one year. "Shrek 2" has grossed a gargantuan $436 million in North America, and "Shark Tale" generated $118 million in just three weeks.

Those hits helped power DreamWorks Animation's recent initial public stock offering. The company raised $660 million, giving it an initial valuation of about $3 billion.

One engine behind this bonanza is DreamWorks' use of a novel technology concept in which the company rents computing power from HP. The two companies worked together on the original "Shrek" movie in 2001 and they expanded their partnership in the making of "Shrek 2."

HP hopes such deals will help it make a stand against its larger

more: seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/ (80)

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