Veteran Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg has raised $591.5 million for a new company, WndrCo, according to a Thursday SEC filing.
Katzenberg is listed as an executive officer and director for the company, joining DreamWorks Animation president Ann Daly and former Dropbox CFO Sujay Jaswa. WndrCo did not disclose its investors, but put its minimum investment at $25 million.
Katzenberg left DreamWorks after selling the animation studio to Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal for $3.8 billion in April, picking up a $391 million payday in the process. He transitioned to a role as chairman of DreamWorks New Media, overseeing the studio’s digital properties, including multi-channel network Awesomeness TV. Katzenberg will also serve as a consultant to NBCUniversal.
The veteran movie executive was the chairman of Walt Disney Studios between 1984 and 1994, a period in which the Mouse House cranked out mega-hits like “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin” and “The Lion King.” Katzenberg left Disney after clashing with then-CEO Michael Eisner, co-founding DreamWorks SKG in 1994 with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen.
DreamWorks, which is behind some of the biggest animated movies of all-time with the “Shrek” and “Kung Fu Panda” franchises, spun off its animation branch in 2004. That was the entity acquired by Comcast this spring, freeing Katzenberg to pursue new things. One of which, apparently, is WndrCo.