Oh, how the mighty have fallen—or at least lost interest (Not pictured: Paul Allen)

Well, it is official: The wizened old men heading up General Electric have bestowed their corporate blessings on NBC Universal's courtship of DreamWorks. The news follows almost a week of rumors that the companies were in buyout talks, with old pals Ron Meyer and David Geffen evidently taking the lead in negotiations out in California.

Of course, I loosely apply the term "news," because the stars have been aligning themselves to this end for a while now. After all, Universal hosts DreamWorks' headquarters on its lot, where DreamWorks' co-founder Steven Spielberg made his name after borrowing his father's briefcase, wandering past security and pretending to be a Universal employee almost 40 years ago (and where he is currently in production on the DreamWorks co-production Munich). NBC absorbed DreamWorks TV unit in 2002 and distributes DreamWorks Animation's DVD's, while a disgruntled Geffen has been dying to shed the movie arm he has been managing since DreamWorks investors sold off their record label (to Universal, natch) in 2003.

Speaking of investors, Microsoft mogul Paul Allen has about $600 million tied up in DreamWorks and is still trying to flush the bitter taste of failed partnerships like POP.com ($50 million loss) and his stagnant 59 percent interest in DreamWorks' spun-off, embattled animation wing. Even a multi-billionaire tires of hemmorhaging money (unless he is blowing it on a shitty, underachieving football team, which is another story), and an Allen buyout represents the majority of the $750 million or so that analysts expect DreamWorks to fetch.

But that price could go up: Other experts predict DreamWorks could highball NBC Universal with an asking price as high as $1.4 billion. The Times' Laura Holson reports that Rockefeller Center wants (and appears to have received) exclusive negotiations with Geffen, although Holson also wrote last week that nobody else is especially interested in DreamWorks and its flagging reputation. Warner Bros.—which is gorging itself on shit after co-producing The Island with DreamWorks—is getting hot and heavy with the Weinsteins instead, and Sony turned off its porch light and stopped answering its phones just in case.