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‘Modern Family’ Gets Cable Makeover For Launch … Calling the proposed Spyglass plan a “presciption for disaster,” Carl Icahn on Thursday offered to buy
another $963 million of MGM’s debt. He already owns around $500 million of it, so the sum would make him one of MGM’s largest creditors – with a stake of around 37%. Pending the offer, he would then be in a good position to approve a merger between Lionsgate and the studio, one he now supports. Some of MGM’s creditors are pushing hard for that prepackaged bankruptcy plan that would instead see Spyglass’ Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum come in and run the studio. As a condition of his offer, Icahn said anyone selling to him must vote against the Spyglass plan; a vote is scheduled for Oct. 29. Icahn also stated on Thursday: “This is the critical decision point for MGM lenders, yet we are being rushed into an extraordinary Prepackaged Plan with limited information and input, on a “hurry up basis” that frustrates any dissent. I hope to defeat this “rush to judgment.”
MGM Crowns Spyglass Partners Gary Barber And Roger Birnbaum New CEOs
2ND UPDATE: MGM has just confirmed Deadline’s report that it has formally named Spyglass
partners Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum its new chairmen/CEOs, and the studio has just issued a press release describing its reorganization effort. It appears … Read More »
MEMO: MGM Not Veering From Spyglass
EXCLUSIVE: Despite the speculation that India conglomerate Sahara India Pariwar might swoop in and buy MGM for $2 billion, it doesn’t sound like MGM’s current management is taking it that seriously. At least not based on this internal memo I just obtained:
Bloomberg: MGM Creditors To Vote On Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy Plan This Month
MGM creditors will be asked to approve a restructuring and pre-packaged bankruptcy plan for the studio within the next week or two, Bloomberg reports. This follows Spyglass chiefs Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber’s signing non-binding letters of intent on … Read More »
Spyglass Partners Inch Closer To MGM Reins; Battle Royals Looms For James Bond Distribution Rights
As expected, the MGM ownership situation is getting closer to being sorted, and it won’t be long before the Lion has a chance to roar again. Or at least emerge from its cage. Spyglass chiefs Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber … Read More »
EXCLUSIVE: Summit Walks Away From MGM To Go Back Into Acquisitions Mode
“Summit is pulling out because the process has gone on way too long and it’s become a distraction for the business,” an insider tells me this morning. Summit toppers Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger are still in acquisition mode, and the … Read More »
MGM To Morph Into A Pure Production Play?
Can ‘The Hobbit’ Wait For MGM Decisions?
EXCLUSIVE: Now that Spyglass has emerged as the favorite to steer MGM’s future fortunes — although Summit insists it’s not out of the running yet and Lionsgate is in merger talks — more details are emerging about MGM’s possible future. Insiders tell me that the Spyglass plan would transform MGM into a pure production company and close down its marketing and distribution divisions. That would certainly cut costs in the short run. Coupled with the equity that Spyglass would bring to the table, a streamlined MGM would lower its debt and have a shot at raising new funding to finance its own pictures. That would let Spyglass partners Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum do what they do well, which is to lower risk by making domestic and offshore distribution deals.
But I see the downside of this plan. MGM would have to pay others to distribute and market its films — and those fees could be comparable or higher than the monies saved on overhead. I’m told that rival Summit and Lionsgate proposals would maintain MGM as a studio because both companies have distribution divisions. The Spyglass move would mean yet another morphing of MGM over the recent past. Under Harry Sloan, the revived studio started off as a distribution rental system for films by financiers like Sidney Kimmel and The Weinstein Co, a strategy that didn’t work. Read More »
Spyglass Beating Summit To Run MGM?
For weeks now, we have been hearing from our various sources at studios, agencies and production companies that Spyglass Entertainment is in the lead to run a restructured MGM despite Summit Entertainment also being very much in the mix. But it’s been … Read More »
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