DreamWorks to buy Classic Media for $155 mln - WSJ

July 23 (Reuters) - DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc beat rival bidders to buy Classic Media for $155 million to strengthen its array of entertainment characters, which will now include "Casper" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," the Wall Street Journal said.

DreamWorks will pay cash for the two-year-old rights-holding company, which is owned by Boomerang Media Holdings I LLC, a portfolio company of private-equity firm GTCR LLC, the journal said.

Classic Media will operate under the DreamWorks Classics brand and co-Chief Executives Eric Ellenbogen and John Engelman will remain as co-heads, though the exact organizational structure is still being sorted out, the newspaper said.

Classic Media formed in 2000, has more than 450 family entertainment titles and generated $82.2 million in revenue in the year ended Feb 29, 2012, the WSJ said.

DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg told the Journal the deal "gives the studio a very deep character library that helps it rival Universal or Sony."

DreamWorks and Classic Media could not immediately be reached for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.