Toronto-based Cambium Film and Video’s proposed merger with Vancouver wholesale video and theatrical distributor TSC Shannock has failed due to unacceptable terms associated with a $3-million private placement that Cambium had to raise, says Cambium chairman and executive producer Arnie Zipursky.

‘We were able to raise the $3 million but the terms weren’t acceptable in terms of the conditions the money came in on,’ says Zipursky. ‘We chose not to accept the $3 million, and therefore both companies made the decision to terminate the agreement.’

Zipursky says Cambium is still searching for other strategic partners and possible merger suitors both in Canada and internationally.

The fruitless Shannock deal marks the second failed merger attempt by the 15-year-old Cambium. A 1997 union with the u.k.’s Mayfair Entertainment International was never closed.

But Cambium continues moving forward. It has announced plans to open a 3D animation studio in downtown Toronto with its coproducer on the series Monster By Mistake, Catapult Productions.

Production on 26 episodes of Monster By Mistake, budgeted at $10 million, will take place in the new facility with 40 animators using Side Effects Software’s new 3D animation program Houdini.

Side Effects cofounder Kim Davidson is president/executive producer of Catapult.

Zipursky says the new studio will be soliciting service work as well as Cambium and Catapult projects.

With ytv broadcasting Monster By Mistake in Canada, Zipursky says Cambium has licensed the series to Buena Vista International for broadcast on all international Disney Channels in a deal worth roughly $2 million. Zipursky says the deal marks one of Buena Vista’s first large-scale, multi-territory deals. A u.s. deal for the series has yet to be made.’

Meanwhile, Cambium’s plans for a large-scale animation facility in New Brunswick have moved from the short to the long term, but Zipursky says discussions with the province’s government are ongoing.

‘Cambium is definitely looking at opening a regional 2D and 3D studio,’ he says. ‘It may not be New Brunswick, but we’re still in conversations with them.

Meanwhile, looking towards next month’s mipcom, Cambium has just delivered two one-minute cartoons to Fox Sports called Bangs & The Tank. Based on a comic strip, the cartoons, coproduced with Vancouver’s Delaney and Friends, are designed to teach kids about baseball. Zipursky has approached both tsn and CTV Sportsnet with Bangs & The Tank.

Also in development is the one-hour documentary March of the Living for Global. The doc chronicles holocaust survivors returning to Nazi death camps accompanied by modern teenagers.

In development for Cambium with ytv is Motiki Time, a half-hour live-action series described as Larry Sanders for kids.