The proposed sale of DreamWorks Animation SGK Inc. to a Japanese telecom company probably won’t mandate relocation or reorganization of the movie studio, experts say. But it has already pumped life into the stock and could inspire others to make a bid for the Glendale company. SoftBank Corp., in Tokyo, reportedly made a $3.4 billion offer for DreamWorks, the studio behind the “Shrek,” “Kung Fu Panda,” and “Madagascar” franchises, on Sept. 27. Shares jumped up the next trading day, and though they gave back some gains, they closed Oct. 1 at $26.75, about 20 percent higher than before the offer. And even as talks between the two companies have since cooled, the SoftBank offer makes it a company in play. DreamWorks’ small size, low market capitalization and stable of movies present an attractive package. In addition, the company has diversification plans that include television series, online content, and a themed entertainment center in China. “They also own (YouTube network) AwesomenessTV, which has a great lock on web properties targeting pre-teens and teens,” said Eric Wold, an analyst in the San Francisco office of B. Riley & Co., a Los Angeles investment bank, which issued a “neutral” rating for the company in August. DreamWorks Animation was founded in 1994 as the animation portion of the DreamWorks studio started by former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, film director Steven Spielberg and record producer David Geffen. The company was spun off in 2004 and has a workforce of more than 2,600 employees in Glendale, Redwood City and Shanghai, China. Katzenberg remains as chief executive. The big question for the Valley: how much of the operations would stay in Glendale, where the studio has a 6-acre campus, about 460,000 square feet of offices and the plurality of its employees? Marty Shindler, entertainment technology consultant at Shindler Perspective in Encino, believes the dislocation would be minimal, and he pointed to the experience of Pixar Animation Studios. Its majority owner, the late Steve Jobs, insisted that when Walt Disney Co. bought the studio in 2006 its culture and location in Emeryville stay intact. “There is a strong business argument to keep operations away from the prying eyes of corporate,” Shindler said. Steve Hulett, the business representative for the Animation Guild in Burbank, agrees with that take. He said that if a sale does go through he did not expect any impact to the membership in Glendale, where the union represents more than 500 employees. Asian connection SoftBank was established in 1981 and is a majority owner in U.S. telecom company Sprint Nextel Corp., and has e-commerce, technology services, media and marketing businesses. Earlier this year, the company considered and dropped a bid to buy T-Mobile US for $32 billion. By comparison, DreamWorks’ current market cap is about $2.3 billion after the recent stock run- up. If the SoftBank transaction for Dreamworks is finalized it would represent the first sale of a Hollywood studio to an Asian company in 25 years. The last was in 1989 when Sony Corp. acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc., in Culver City, in a deal valued at $4.9 billion with financing provided by five Japanese banks. The name was changed to Sony Pictures Entertainment two years later. Sony Entertainment produces both feature films and television programming. Top studio deals since 2006 include Disney’s $4.2 billion acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, in New York and its $4 billion acquisition of LucasFilm Ltd., in San Francisco, by Disney $4 billion. Then there was the mammoth $30 billion acquisition of NBC Universal, which includes Universal Pictures, by Comcast Corp., in Philadelphia, from General Electric Co. that was concluded last year. Common to all these deals was that the studio facilities stayed in place and didn’t require mass relocation of employees. LucasFilm did have a change in executive leadership when noted producer Kathleen Kennedy was named chief executive the month before its acquisition, a move likely meeting the approval of Disney, Shindler said. “As far as I can tell there have not been wholesale changes in management at LucasFilm,” he added. But Disney did make staffing cuts by closing the LucasArts video game division in 2013 and letting got more than 100 employees. That, too, could be what’s in store for DreamWorks if SoftBank or another new owner eliminates administrative, legal or accounting jobs at the headquarters. “If they are not separate they might not need that full set of operations,” Shindler said. Competing candidates DreamWorks isn’t the only entertainment company on SoftBank’s radar. The company is reportedly looking to make an investment in Legendary Pictures, the Burbank production house behind “The Dark Knight” and “Hangover” franchises, according to media reports. This fits with SoftBank’s growth strategy, which was highlighted by company spending $21.6 billon to acquire Sprint last year. The company is described in media reports as an outlier in the traditional risk-averse mentality of corporate Japan. Its chief executive, Masayoshi Son, also is seen as a maverick with more in common with U.S. executives than Japanese. Forbes magazine named Son as Japan’s richest man with a net worth of more than $20 billion. The deep pockets of SoftBank would prove a benefit to DreamWorks, considering the company’s weak financial performance this year. This summer the studio had a hit with “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” but previously had a string of box office bombs that prompted write-downs, layoffs and a decline in the stock price, which topped $35 a share last December. The studio has taken a total of $158 million in write-downs on the 2014 release “Mr. Peabody and Sherman,” the 2013 release “Turbo” and 2012’s “Rise of the Guardians.” The summer release “How to Train Your Dragon 2” will likely recoup its expenses which will lead to investor optimism for the second half, according to the B. Riley report from Wold. “However, given “Dragon 2” was always expected to perform relatively well we are looking for indications of both continued box office strength with “The Penguins of Madagascar” this Thanksgiving as well as improving film-level profitability trends,” Wold wrote in the August report. “Dragon 2” had a global box office of $613 million, with the international performance doing better than domestically.