Word just came in this morning that over the weekend Paramount has bought Dreamworks SKG for $1.6 billion. The deal excludes the publicly traded “Dreamworks Animation” studio but includes all 59 movies produced by Dreamworks SKG in the past 11 years.

The deal was a surprise for many, especially since it was reportedly hammered out within a week while Dreamworks’ previous negotiations with Universal had not lead to any satisfactory offer after more than nine months of conferencing.

One of the side effects of this deal will also be that Steven Spielberg, one of Dreamworks’ principals will no longer be making movies for Universal – a studio he has had a very long working history with – but for Paramount instead, which is a major blow for Universal as the director was responsible for some of the studios’ most profitable and memorable blockbusters.