July 25, 2012
So, MGM Studios has recovered enough to start talking, if cryptically, about an IPO. Makes you wonder if financier Kirk Kerkorian (among the most fascinating, yet completely self-effacing, rich people to have ever walked the earth) has a spare billion dollars burning a hole in his pocket, to buy the studio for a fourth time? The IPO suggests what should have been long apparent: the historic studio Just. Can’t. Be. Killed. Forget about zombies and vampires. Can we do a movie about the studio?  And as a former exec at the studio, I can tell you it still has some admirable assets, such as a 4,000-film library that contains batches of Bond, Bergman, Woody Allen, Pink Panther, Rocky and other classics, along with many thousands of hours of TV shows. Those assets just aren’t worth the $4.9 billion a consortium led by Sony and Comcast paid back in 2005, just before the DVD business began to collapse.  Read Deadline’s David Lieberman, talking about all the vague talk emanating from the storied old Lion’s lair, here: http://ow.ly/cuNVH 

So, MGM Studios has recovered enough to start talking, if cryptically, about an IPO. Makes you wonder if financier Kirk Kerkorian (among the most fascinating, yet completely self-effacing, rich people to have ever walked the earth) has a spare billion dollars burning a hole in his pocket, to buy the studio for a fourth time?

The IPO suggests what should have been long apparent: the historic studio Just. Can’t. Be. Killed. Forget about zombies and vampires. Can we do a movie about the studio? 

And as a former exec at the studio, I can tell you it still has some admirable assets, such as a 4,000-film library that contains batches of Bond, Bergman, Woody Allen, Pink Panther, Rocky and other classics, along with many thousands of hours of TV shows. Those assets just aren’t worth the $4.9 billion a consortium led by Sony and Comcast paid back in 2005, just before the DVD business began to collapse. 

Read Deadline’s David Lieberman, talking about all the vague talk emanating from the storied old Lion’s lair, here: http://ow.ly/cuNVH 

(Source: deadline.com)

11:13am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z2qjCvQ4Wjrn
Filed under: MGM Studios IPO finance business movies TV Deadline.com David Lieberman