Carl Rosendahl-who earlier this year sold his 40 percent ownership stake in computer animation/visual effects studio Pacific Data Images (PDI) to Los Angeles-headquartered DreamWorks SKG-has joined Softbank Venture Capital. Rosendahl’s new roost, headquartered in the Northern California community of Mountain View, manages venture capital funds focused primarily on Internet companies. He comes on board as principal managing director of the fund, and will focus on Softbank’s media/Internet convergence technology practice.
Rosendahl founded PDI (now PDI/DreamWorks) in ’80. As its chairman, he led the Palo Alto, Calif.-based studio into a diverse mix of disciplines, including commercials, television, multimedia and theatrical movies. He served as an executive producer on the ’98 release Antz, a computer animation feature which PDI co-produced with DreamWorks
Upon buying Rosendahl’s interest in PDI this past February for an undisclosed price, DreamWorks became the majority owner, with an 80 percent interest in the CG/effects house. Four years ago, DreamWorks acquired its initial 40 percent of PDI (SHOOT, 3/15/96, p. 1).
Softbank has $2.5 billion under its management, with more than 150 Internet companies in its portfolio (i.e.-E*Trade, Buy.com, Art Technology Group, Interliant, Net2Phone, PeoplePC, TeraBeam Networks). In its latest deal, Softbank led a group of investors providing $35 million in private equity funding to San Francisco-based Pulse Entertainment, a developer of technology for creating and experiencing interactive 3-D animation on the Web. Also contributing to this round of Pulse funding were Autodesk, a San Rafael-headquartered, publicly held software developer, and Entertaindom.com, the independent Web entertainment destination from Warner Bros., Burbank, Calif.
Rosendahl described the investment in Pulse as being key to the Softbank fund’s overall strategy. "Pulse is the next rich media platform for the Internet," contended Rosendahl. "Its technologies enable the creation and delivery of new forms of interactive content across multiple platforms, positioning them at the epicenter of revolutionary new media for use in entertainment, e-commerce, advertising and education."
Autodesk and its wholly owned, publicly held Discreet-the Montreal-based maker of such tools as Flame, Inferno, Fire and Smoke-have a prime incentive for getting involved with Pulse. Godfrey Sullivan, executive VP of Discreet, explained in a released statement: "It makes perfect sense for us to invest in Pulse since their technology provides a way for our 120,000 3-D Studio Max content developers to port their content easily into a Pulse-powered format for the Internet. We’re able to bring the largest installed base of 3-D developers a way to get their new and existing content on the Web; it’s a fundamental part of our overall Web strategy."
Rosendahl sits on the board of Pulse. He is a founding member of the Visual Effects Society (VES) and continues to serve as vice chair of the VES’ governing board of directors.
