Merger and Acquisition

One of the bigger animation studios on the continent has been subsumed by a European entity:

Italian children’s TV producer and distributor Rainbow has expanded into North America with the acquisition of a Canadian animation studio.

Rainbow, which claims to be the largest animation studio in Europe, has bought Vancouver-based Bardel Entertainment for an undisclosed fee.

Bardel, meanwhile, employs 650 artists across three divisions in Canada who provide animation for the likes of Nickelodeon, DreamWorks and Disney. ...

Bardel has been on a tear as the go-to Canadian shop for many American Cartoon Creators. (Never under-estimate the power of Free Money.)

Bardel currently works on nine different animated projects/series, and staffers at the studios down here in Los Angeles tell me that there has been tugging and pulling between majors over who gets Bardel's "A staff" and who has to live with "B staff.

(Disney, from accounts, does not live with B staff.)

But now it looks like Bardel has been purchased by Rainbow, and so changes might be happening. More co-productions? More original content on behalf of the new owner? Be interesting to watch and see.