RoadBoot

CC finally received Pandora in the mail, and says that the tapes play fine. My fears about erased audio and other nastiness are gone. One more step toward a finished documentary.

While waiting for my flight back to the US at Incheon International Airport I found a little internet cafe. Checking my email I discovered this cryptic message from our contact at MFE:

Quothe the Raven:

Did you see the most recent Press Release? Did you get what’s on the table? No more ‘Mainframe’ per-se!

So the question is - if Mainframe didn’t exist anymore, who would the ReBoot fans complain to about finishing it etc.?

Yes kids (love you Hanako), Rainmaker has reached a deal to acquire the remaining outstanding shares of MFE’s stock. TechFinance.ca reports all.

Particularly telling are these figures: Working Oppurtunity Fund will dump its MFE shares at a loss of 4.1 million, and IDT has unloaded for 2.5m less than its original investment.

Check out Google Finance’s page on MFE here. At the time of this writing MFE’s shares have already dropped a cent since the press release.

Now, I realize that this has very little to do with us little people in front of the tube, but consider this statement from TechFinance:

Upon completion of the transaction, the businesses of Mainframe and Rainmaker Animation & Visual Effects will be fully integrated under the name “Rainmaker Entertainment Inc.”

Also this paragraph from WorldScreen.com:

Rainmaker Entertainment (REI) will be the largest animation and visual effects studio in Canada with over 300 employees. Warren Franklin, the president of Rainmaker, will be the CEO of REI; and Rick Mischel, the CEO of Mainframe, will be the president and COO of REI.

(Rick Mischel was the guy all tied up in telephone cords when Chris and I visited 2025 Broadway. Don’t complain to him.)

So really, who WILL we spam with our annoying “Please Please Make More” love/hate-notes? Not the future REI, surely. They are too big for us.

The answer is the same it has always been: television networks. Spam the networks. Leave the poor salarymen at the production facilities alone.

On a side note, when at 2025 Broadway it was revealed to the Innocents Abroad that the ONLY reason MFE had managed to stay afloat since season four was through the continuing interest of Mattel. The Barbie movies may have sparked more than a few spiteful comments in the fan community, but even though a pauper has asked for bread and butter he does not sneer at pumpernickle and lard.