In their roadshow, MFE mentioned that they had one animator poached by EA. When EA sat him down at his workstation so he could show them how they crank out the production at MFE, he was a bit surprised that the software looked different and that it didn't have all the additional features that MFE built into it. He couldn't do much of what he did at MFE and left EA and returned.
As for supply of employees. The animation classes are getting larger at the schools. MFE has a grant from the BC gov't to start up a "work training" type program. Warner digital closed down it's whole shop last year, so there still aren't many large-scale operations. They hire many directors from the industry on a project-by-project basis in order to keep the expenses variable. They are paid almost entirely in US$, hence benefit from U$/C$ movements. They can pass that along in wages. They have a good work environment, there's lots of work and the younger animators, if productive, can earn some pretty hefty salaries. Mgmt spoke at the roadshow of a brilliant 18 year old who hit all his production benchmarks and then some, and earned around $60,000 --not bad. They then elevated him to a level of more respnsibility - some modeling etc... There aren't many places you can go and see your work up on the screen around the world within a few months, getting number 1 or 2 ratings. Plus the upside of more IMAX films, both 3D and RideFilm, big screen movies, more TV etc...
Also, stock options don't depend on liquidity since they are usually longer-term and have holding period restrictions on them. I think MFE has a better chance, given their size and growth, of seeing the share double or triple in the next year or two than EA. In the IPO, they had to restrict the employee purchase because it got to be too large.
On BW, it is now Hasbro's number one toy. I think that says a lot for what the show did for demand. Do you think Hasbro wants more? What about other toy manufacturers? Pretty compelling sales pitch. |
