Aiming to expand its global reach, Rainmaker Income Fund is acquiring Mainframe Entertainment Inc., in a $14-million deal that will make Rainmaker the largest animation and visual effects studio in Canada. Rainmaker is best known for providing visual effects to high profile movie projects such as the The Da Vinci Code and Blades of Glory, which is still in production. But the company thinks it can expand its clout by acquiring Mainframe, a company known for launching Reboot, the world's first made-for-television series consisting of nothing but computer generated animation.

Both companies are based in Vancouver.

"To be able to compete in the global marketplace, we needed to be bigger," said Warren Franklin, president of Rainmaker's animation and production division, which owns production studios in Vancouver and London, England. "So it just seemed logical to try and put the two companies together."

To achieve its goal, Rainmaker is acquiring a 62-per-cent stake in Mainframe from IDT Entertainment Inc. When the transaction closes on July 31, Rainmaker will move to acquire the balance through agreements with minority shareholders such Working Opportunity Fund (WOF), which holds 13 per cent of Mainframe.

Rainmaker is proposing to pay 24 cents each for the shares held by WOF.

The combined company will have 300 employees and be run by Mr. Franklin, and Rick Mischel, the chief executive officer of Mainframe, which has a production studio in Vancouver as well as a project development office in Los Angeles.

Until now, Mr. Franklin said no Vancouver company has been big enough to take on the kind character animation, and computer generated background work that is usually done in cities like Los Angeles and London. But that is expected to change when the companies' production facilities are combined. "We will be able to expand the kind of projects that we are doing,'' Mr. Franklin said. As a result, he said Vancouver could soon become a production venue for blockbuster movies like Harry Potter and King Kong.

 source: Globe and Email

Comments (1)

The news sounds positive. : Nate The press releases sound positive so far. Not much talk of restructuring in a negative way. Good luck to the artists working at both companies during the transition period! July 22, 2006

Write comment

Name Email Title Comment Write the displayed characters Add Comment