Command Post and Transfer is calling it an acquisition, dave is calling it a merger, but both sides agree something big is in the works.

On Feb. 13, publicly traded Command Post announced it had entered into a letter of intent with NetStar Communications and the latter’s wholly owned subsidiary, Dome Productions, regarding the purchase of assets by Command Post of dave, Dome’s audio and video post-production facility for the commercial, tv and feature film industries.

Based in Toronto, Command Post was founded in 1986 to provide a full range of post services for the entertainment industry. It currently has the 70-staff Command Post/toybox office in Toronto, which specializes in visual effects (Fight Club, The Cell, eXistenZ), and Command Post/TOYBOX West in Vancouver, which deals primarily in video post and employs about 60. It also has an office in Hollywood.

dave (Dome Audio Video & Effects), based in Toronto, has a video division with about 35 staff members and an audio division with about 40.

According to a Command Post release, the proposed deal, expected to close by Feb. 28, calls for it to purchase substantially all of the assets of dave, including the lease to its Toronto premises, in exchange for $17 million worth of Command Post common shares.

The two companies have been longtime cross-town rivals for spots, series and mows, but Command Post/toybox’s growing feature film clientele could be an entree in that area for the dave facility as well.

Toronto has recently hosted a growing number of big-budget films and tv programs that require multiple local post shops to help meet their deadlines, and the newly formed entity, combining the infrastructure of two major facilities, would be in a better position to land these projects as a "one-stop shop."

Whenever possible, producers prefer the convenience of having as many of their post needs as possible handled by one company, and they perceive that would get them a better rate. On the other hand, some producers might worry that if there are fewer companies in town with the high-end post systems, those services might come at a premium.

At press time, neither side wished to comment on whether company names would be changed, all staff would remain, or how the proposed deal would affect day-to-day

operations. *

-www.compt.com

(Command Post and Transfer Corporation)