News Corp seeking MGM’s lion?

Possibly Hollywood's most famous studio, MGM is up for sale along with its James Bond franchise. Reports out of Sydney suggest that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp are more than casually interested in the assets.

Rupert Murdoch knows better than most the value of a good film and TV archive but so does Time Warner, which has earned good cash out of the MGM brand ever since Ted Turner acquired the pre-1986 archive (in 1986).

Today's MGM is burdened by a ton of debt (some $4bn) and the vultures are circling. MGM is owned by Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Grp, Comcast Corp. and Sony each owning 20%, while DLJ Merchant Partners holds 7% and Quadrangle Group holds 3%t. Led by Providence, the group bought MGM for $5bn in 2005. Sony and Comcast have written off their investments.

The risk now is that MGM might well end up being broken up, but a decision has to emerge by Jan 31st when the bankers will step in.