ITV

Tag: Texas Pacific Group

  • Sony Corp seeks two-week extension on MGM deal

    Sony Corp seeks two-week extension on MGM deal

    MUMBAI: US Electronics goods manufacturer giant Sony Corporation has asked for a two-week extension on their exclusive acquisition talks with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM).

    The parties have been negotiating for around three weeks on a deal, on Sony Corp’s film studio acquiring MGM, valued at $5 billion. The talks were set to expire on Thursday 27 May.

    Sony’s ambitious bid is backed by investment companies including Texas Pacific Group and Providence Equity Partners. The joint bid is to acquire the famed studio with its 4,000-title strong film library. Time Warner Inc. and NBC Universal have also been ogling MGM though they are yet to come out in the open to confirm this. Sony’s bid values MGM at just over $12 per share. But media reports have quoted industry sources as saying the quoted sum was not a major roadblock.

    As analysed by Indiantelevision.com earlier, if Sony succeeds acquiring MGM, that would put ZEE TV and their collaboration with MGM, the ZEE MGM channel, in a tough spot. What would complicate the matter for ZEE is, Sony Corp’s Indian network Sony Entertainment Television is their competitor in India.

  • Sony ogles MGM; what happens to Zee MGM?

    Sony ogles MGM; what happens to Zee MGM?

    MUMBAI: Moves are afoot in the US which could spoil the plot for Zee TV in India. Especially its Zee MGM channel. Movie studio MGM – more than 70 per cent owned by billionaire financier Kirk Kerkorian – is in talks with Sony Corp for a sell out.

    Two other firms, Texas Pacific Group and Providence Equity Partners, are partnering Sony in a deal worth close to $ five billion. Each of the three is expected to bring in $1.5 billion, with the rest to be borrowed from the market.

    The three are looking at buying out the entire company which had a market capitalisation of $4.1 billion before the news of the talks broke. It would require Kerkorian’s sanction.

    Sony is lusting after MGM because of its assets which include the vast MGM movie library inclusive of the James Bond movies and the Pink Panther series.

    Kerkorian and his investment firm Tracinda Corp have bought and sold MGM and its various parts several times over the past few decades. Kerkorian and Tracinda bought MGM in 1996 from an affiliate of French bank Credit Lyonnais after the studio suffered years of Losses. Chief executive Alex Yemenidjian engineered a turnaround and added to the library by acquiring other companies, reports say.

    Last year, MGM lost the bid to buy Vivendi Universal Entertainment after offering around $11.5 billion for assets that included Universal Studios, reports say.