Dreamworks Animation

CITY HALL ? DreamWorks Animation will ask the city today to amend its development agreement to allow taller buildings at its Flower Street campus as part of a proposed 128,716-square-foot expansion. It is a request that gained narrow approval from the Planning Commission on April 2. If the Redevelopment Agency approves the amendment today, the studio would be able to take advantage of a 2004 rezoning of the area and incorporate a 93-foot-tall building, with five stories above ground and an additional story underground, into the proposed campus expansion.

DreamWorks Animation SKG aims to build an animation studio in Shanghai in a further effort to plumb the vast Chinese economy. The Glendale-based studio, which recently announced a deal with online video site Youku.com to distribute its "Kung Fu Panda" movies in China, is recruiting executives to run a studio that would produce animated movies and TV shows catering to the Chinese market, said a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to...

DOWNTOWN GLENDALE ? When the city's director of libraries first heard that DreamWorks Animation SKG's annual employee summer carnival was going to benefit the Glendale Central Library's children's room, she expected a $100 donation. "That buys maybe six or seven books, which is great," Nancy Hunt-Coffey said. But instead, the library is getting 100 times that. Glendale-based DreamWorks Animation is expected to present a $10,000 check to the library officials at tonight's City Council meeting.

Technicolor Inc. plans to lay off 50 employees at its relatively new Flower Street facility by Jan. 14, according to a recent state filing. Plans for the layoffs, filed with the California Employment Development Department, affect the 40,000-square-foot lab in the San Fernando Road corridor where the company moved roughly 100 film-processing jobs last summer. Technicolor transferred the jobs to Glendale after it downsized and shuttered its North Hollywood facility. Last month, Technicolor released an update of its 2011 financial performance and objectives for 2012, in which the company said it was “considering a number of cost-reduction action plans.” Last January, Technicolor officials said the move to Glendale was a natural choice because of the city's push for its San Fernando Road Creative Corridor and because the facility would be close to DreamWorks Animation and the Walt Disney Co.'s Creative Campus.

Market to celebrate three years at spot Whole Foods Market will serve a barbecue lunch to celebrate the store's third anniversary at at 331 N. Glendale Ave. Attendees will be asked to contribute a minimum $5 donation to benefit the Whole Planet Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting global poverty. The lunch will feature barbecue, beverages and cake. DreamWorks locks deal on feature Glendale-based DreamWorks Animation SKG and Mattel Inc. have entered into an exclusive licensing arrangement on DreamWorks Animation's June 2008 release, "Kung Fu Panda," with Mattel serving as the worldwide master toy licensee for the film, DreamWorks announced on Tuesday.

NORTHWEST GLENDALE ? DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. saw its earnings fall by 73% in the first quarter of the year, despite the release of "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," officials said Tuesday. Net income fell to $12.3 million from $45.7 million a year earlier for the Glendale-based animation company. Sales fell 64%, to $60.1 million. Both the "Wallace and Gromit" film and "Shrek 2," the sequel to DreamWorks' wildly successful hit about a lovable green ogre, have yet to recover their distribution costs and provided no revenue for DreamWorks in the first quarter, Chief Financial Officer Kristina Leslie said in a conference call Tuesday.

Union Bank promotes two in local office GLENDALE -- Union Bank of California has promoted two employees at its customer service center in Glendale. Juan Carlos Molina and Greg Kirkland have been promoted to senior vice presidents within Union Bank's retirement plans services division. Prior to Union Bank, Molina was a manager for pension underwriting for Transamerica Corp. Kirkland previously worked with Bankers Trust as a participant service specialist.

GLENDALE -- Wallace and Gromit took care of the were-rabbit but the film's producers probably wish more film-goers bothered to watch. Third quarter revenues for Glendale-based DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. ending Sept. 30, totaled $87.1 million resulting in a net loss of about $656,000 or one cent per share, the company announced Thursday. That pales in comparison to the same period in 2004 when the company posted revenues of $241.3 million and a net income of $20.3 million, or 26 cents per share.