MGM Up For Sale!

[James Harvey]

MGM has put itself up for sale and hired investment banking firm Goldman Sachs to solicit bids that are due this week, according to the Los Angeles Times.

MGM, which is controlled by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, is looking for a price of $7 billion or more for the legendary studio, which is valued on Wall Street at about $5 billion.

Most of the major studios are interested in MGM's vast film library, which includes the "Pink Panther" and "James Bond" movies. MGM's 4,100 movie titles could help Viacom Inc. feed its Showtime movie channel, or Walt Disney Co. shore up its weak live-action film library.

But none of the studios are believed to have submitted a bid, concerned that the price is too steep, according to sources. In addition to Viacom and Disney, the potential bidders include Vivendi Universal, News Corp. and AOL Time Warner Inc. -- Coming Soon.net

[Calhoun07]

Oh, please please please do not let AOL Time Warner get them. They have too many good movies that I don't want to see screwed up by WB's handling of them.

[Failure]

Whoo, imagine how much more powerful AOL Time Warner would get if they bought MGM. I thought Disney had shares or at least some kind of interest in MGM, am I wrong?

[James Harvey]

I was pretty sure that AOLTW had a big stake in MGM as well. CN airs most of the MGM cartoons and WB has released some MGM movies to DVD (like Wizard of OZ). I wouldn't be surprise dif WB did get MGM.

[Calhoun07]

Time to snatch up some of those MGM movies on DVD I've been putting off before they get discontinued and re-released in snappers. I just get the feeling this will turn out for the worst.

[Captain Caps]

I'd like Viacom to consider a purchase of MGM. There's a Paramount DVD representative there, so maybe I could pass along the suggestion to him.

Anybody think that might be a problem?

Sincerely,

John "Captain Caps" Kilduff

So, if AOLTW gets MGM, the MGM library is reunited, but a lot of titles won't come out on DVD for years, if ever.

[Bird Boy]

ah crap...this mean we'll see re-re-re-releases of MORE DVD's again!?! :confused:

please..don't let WB get it..pleeeease

-BB

[Joe Tully]

The good thing that could come from AOLTW getting MGM is that we could get the DePatie-Freleng stuff back on CN. Pink Panther, Inspector, Ant & Aardvark, etc.

Oh well, worry about the consequences whenever the actual sale occurs, I say.

[Maxie Zeus]

Warner Bros. already has the best film library in the world: Every Warner Bros. film ever made, all the pre-1986 MGM films, and the TV and video rights to all the RKO films (1929-1956). Classics-wise, probably only Vivendi Universal (with the complete Universal catalogue and the pre-1950 Paramount films) is close.

Viacom (Paramount) and Disney, as noted, are pretty weak. Disney's live action catalogue is skewed to 1984 and after, and Paramount only has its post-1950 films. Each of them could use some serious bulking up.

The problem is that the MGM catalogue is no great shakes. The valuable part is the United Artists collection, but that really only covers 3 decades (the 50s thru the 70s), augmented by the small Goldwyn, Orion and American-International libraries. Goldwyn has only a small classics library and some 1980s art films; A-I is grade B junk from the 50s and 60s; and Orion has only a small library from the 80s.

That library is the only thing of value it has. The production and distribution side are too weak to interest a non-studio buyer, and redundant with those of another studio. And I don't know what the library would be worth. If it's already tied down with long-term TV contracts (with movie networks like Starz and AMC) then even a competitor would blanch at a high price.

In the past Murdoch has tried to buy it, only to be thwarted by another bidder. And Kerkorian is a wily operator who has made a career out of buying and selling MGM. I'm betting this "sale" is just an excuse for him to try buying the rest of the company at a distress price when the auction fails.