In financial difficulty, the Hollywood studios of Metro Goldwyn Mayer told two investment banks to find buyers.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Metro-Goldwynn-Mayer has decided to find new buyers. In financial difficulties, the Hollywood studio has recruited two investment banks to carry out this mission. Morgan Stanley and LionTree LLC are said to have been tasked with exploring avenues to buy the studio valued at around $ 5.5 billion, including 2.3 billion in debt.
MGM believes it can generate interest beyond the usual Hollywood investors (media, private equity investors, etc.), a source familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal . In the first line, streaming platforms, which the catalog of 4,000 cinema titles and more than 17,000 hours of television productions should be of interest. In recent months, Anchorage, MGM’s main shareholder fund, has sought to pull out. Its CEO, Kevin Ulrig, and also chairman of the board of directors of MGM, cited Apple and Amazon, but also Facebook or Comcast as potential buyers of one of the five big Hollywood studios, founded in 1924, which is notably at the heart of the plot of Mank, the latest film by David Fincher.
The rights to the James Bond franchise should be used as a lead product to find a buyer. In collaboration with Eon Productions, the series will reach its 25th film with Dying Can Wait . He has been delayed several times due to the health crisis. Entangled in a difficult financial situation, the MGM would have also sought, according to Bloomberg, to sell the last film of Daniel Craig in 007 to streaming platforms. Netflix, Apple and other streaming services were takers. But the sale price, estimated at $ 600 million, according to Bloomberg, would have cooled more than one. Nothing ultimately came to pass.
The company also holds licenses Rocky, of The Hobbit, the series Handmaid’s Tale or Tomb Raider . Acquiring the MGM would be the assurance of exploiting a rich catalog in the future. Will Netflix or Apple TV + position themselves to fuel their subscriber base? Who from Warner Bros or Disney? The potential sale of MGM comes in the midst of a content bidding war. Its realization would make MGM the first major studio to be swept away by the pandemic – in addition to past debts. Unlike Disney or Warner Bros, the studio does not have a streaming platform to consider the future in front of screens other than those of the cinema.
