007 TO RETURN TO SCREEN IN 2012

It still doesn’t have a title and only a few months ago rumors were flying that the script was not up to snuff, but the producers of the James Bond movies said Tuesday that “Bond 23” will hit the screen on Nov. 9, 2012. (The first Bond film, Dr. No, starring Sean Connery, hit the […]

MGM WON’T HAVE TO FUND THE HOBBIT AFTER ALL

MGM has handed over foreign distribution of the two The Hobbit movies to Warner Bros. in exchange for Warners’ putting up the entire $530-million production budget for the movies, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Friday). A previous agreement called for the two studios to split the production costs, with Warners getting domestic distribution and […]

MGM EMERGES FROM BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION

Leo the Lion roared back to life on Monday as MGM said that it had emerged from bankruptcy protection with $500 million to fund new movies and television shows. The company is now owned by its previous lenders, who had agreed to swap debt for equity and installed Spyglass Entertainment chiefs Gary Barber and Roger […]

COURT APPROVES MGM’S “PREPACKAGED” BANKRUPTCY

A federal bankruptcy court in New York has approved the so-called prepackaged bankruptcy of MGM that effectively makes the historic studio’s lenders its new owners and lifts Spyglass Entertainment founders Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum to co-CEOs. The approval allows MGM to return to the business of producing and distributing movies and television shows, including […]

ICAHN A LION TAMER?

Activist investor Carl Icahn may be turning out to be a more influential figure in the resurrection of MGM than earlier reports had indicated. According to today’s (Thursday) New York Post, besides securing for himself a seat on the MGM board (which had been widely reported), Icahn succeeded in obtaining an agreement from MGM’s debtholders […]

MGM SUBMITS “PRE-PACKAGED” BANKRUPTCY

MGM finally filed its “pre-packaged” bankruptcy plan today (Friday), following years of struggle to lift itself out from under a debt load that it occurred when its owners acquired it from investor Kirk Kerkorian in a $5-billion leveraged buyout in 2005. The filing came days after MGM creditors agreed to swap debt for equity and […]

ICAHN MAKES NEW MGM MOVE, IS SUED BY LIONSGATE

Continuing to play a fascinating game of high-stakes chess, activist investor Carl Icahn on Wednesday made his third offer within a week to MGM debtholders. Icahn said he would pay 50 cents on the dollars to acquire MGM senior debt — if they submit the shares to him by Friday. (His previous offers stipulated minimum […]

ICAHN SWEETENS HIS DEAL FOR MGM

Given widespread reports that MGM’s largest creditors prefer the deal offered by Spyglass Entertainment that would convert their debt into 95 percent ownership of a new company headed by Spyglass chiefs Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, maverick investor Carl Icahn is sweetening the deal he has offered them. On Tuesday, he raised his tender offer […]

MGM — GOING OUT LIKE A LAMB?

MGM would appear to be the latest media company to fall into bankruptcy after being sold to owners who paid too much for it in a leveraged buyout ($4.8 billion) and then discovered that they weren’t earning enough to pay interest on the debt. Published reports said today (Friday) that the studio is attempting to […]

LENDERS GIVE MGM ANOTHER REPRIEVE

Talk about “forbearance!” For the seventh time, MGM lenders on Wednesday agreed to allow MGM to put off interest and principal payments until Oct. 29 while Spyglass Entertainment and its backers finalize plans to take over the historic studio that has fallen on hard times. Those plans include converting debt into equity and Spyglass co-chairmen […]

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