ICAHN MAKES NEW MOVE TO CONTROL LIONS GATE

Activist investor Carl Icahn has launched a hostile bid to take over Lions Gate Entertainment, the corporate parent of Lionsgate Films, offering to buy all of the company’s shares that he does not already own for about $574 million. His offer comes about one week after the company’s board rejected his partial tender offer for 13.2 million shares at $6.00 per share, roughly its current value, as too low. His latest bid also values the company’s shares at $6.00 per share and it is also likely to be spurned for the same reason. A spokesman for the company told the Associated Press: “The Icahn Group’s amended tender offer does not increase the price of the original offer, which the board previously determined to be financially inadequate and not in the best interest of Lions Gate or its shareholders.” Icahn’s maneuver appears aimed at tying the hands of Lions Gate executives, who have expressed interest in bidding for MGM or Miramax studios, primarily to acquire their libraries. However, with the decline in DVD sales, those libraries now seem far less valuable than they once were. Another possible motivating factor for Icahn: his son Brett reportedly has ambitions to become a movie executive.