ENTERTAINMENT : Cox Enterprises to Become Partner in Digital Domain

Newspaper and cable television giant Cox Enterprises Inc. said Wednesday that it has become an equity owner in Digital Domain, a leading Hollywood visual effects company owned by a group that includes movie director James Cameron and IBM Corp.

Digital Domain’s ownership will now be split three ways among Cox, IBM and its founding partners--Cameron, special effects wizard Stan Winston and Digital Domain Chief Executive Scott Ross--as well as some other employees of the Venice-based firm.

No price was disclosed, but industry sources said Atlanta-based Cox is investing about $30 million in the 3-year-old firm.

At a news conference on a large Digital Domain stage, Cox Chairman Jim Kennedy said the company hopes to tap Digital Domain’s creativity to develop the “stuff” it needs as it searches to create content to ship to homes using such technology as cable modems, broad-band two-way cable systems and the Internet.

For Digital Domain, the infusion of funds will help it grow and move from being dependent on servicing the movie and advertising business to developing its own products, such as CD-ROMs. The company has three CD-ROMs scheduled for release later this year or in early 1997, including a co-venture with Mattel Inc. to create fashions on a computer for the Barbie doll. Ross said the company could go public someday, but suggested that it is unlikely to happen any time soon.

Digital Domain has been used in such films as the Cameron-directed film “True Lies” and director Ron Howard’s “Apollo 13,” where the company’s work recently earned an Oscar nomination. It also is used extensively in commercials, including Budweiser’s frog commercials.

Cameron will also use Digital Domain for his upcoming film about the sinking of the Titanic.