MGM going broke
 

If the gov. dont take action soon re: piracy etc this will happen to all studios


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Strugg...sset= &ccode=

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Struggling movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is looking for a buyer.

The home of the James Bond and Pink Panther franchises said Friday it has begun to explore strategic options including "a potential sale of the company."

In a statement, MGM also said its lenders have agreed to grant the company another respite until Jan. 31 from interest payments on nearly $4 billion in debt.

The decision, reversing its refusal to sell a year ago, came during a conference call Friday between restructuring expert Stephen Cooper, now MGM's vice chairman, and the 140 lenders owed some $3.7 billion in bonds maturing in mid-2012, according to a person close to the situation.

The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The lenders agreed to seek outside investors for a new partnership, investment or sale of part or all of the company. Its most valuable asset is its library of 4,000 movie and TV-show titles including such as "Rocky" and "Dances With Wolves." It also owns subsidiary United Artists, headed by Tom Cruise, whose film "Valkyrie" grossed a respectable $200 million worldwide after its release last year.

But the company has fallen on hard times and the home video market has shrunk.

MGM's latest release, a remake of the 1980 musical "Fame," was panned by critics and quickly vanished from most theaters after its Sept. 25 release, making $42 million worldwide to date.

Financial adviser Moelis & Co. is expected to send out non-disclosure agreements and detailed financial information to interested parties by early next week, the person said.

Potential buyers include Time Warner Inc., the parent of the Warner Bros. studio, and News Corp., home of 20th Century Fox.

On Thursday, with rumors swirling of its potential sale, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Vice Chairman Michael Burns also said his company was interested in taking a look.

"They have fantastic franchises like James Bond, they have half of `The Hobbit.' Of course it's interesting to us," Burns told CNBC's Fast Money.

Although MGM had the cash on hand to make the interest payments, pushing back the interest payments allows it to complete three movies it has in the pipeline for next year: "Hot Tub Time Machine," "Red Dawn," and "The Zookeeper," the person said.

MGM was taken private for nearly $5 billion in 2005 by a group led by Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp. and Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group.

In 2007, MGM made $558 million alone from its library of titles, but since then DVD sales have declined industrywide, and a large chunk of those sales has likely vanished.

Besides the bonds, has a $250 million revolving credit facility with JPMorgan due in April.

Cooper, a restructuring guru and former chief executive officer of ailing businesses from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. to Enron Corp., joined MGM as a member of an "Office of the CEO," replacing Chief Executive Harry Sloan in August.

How fucking sad...

The copyright/anti-piracy/anti-theft laws have to catch up with the technology.

Anyone that has ever created content knows exactly what I am speaking about... :2 cents:

ADG

agreed:2 cents::thumbsup

Sad, yes.. but inevitable also imho.

countdown to Gideon jumping in to explain how MGM could make more money if they just gave away their movies in torrents. . .


In 3


2



1 . . . :)

As if that dipshit bottom feeder has ever earned an honest dollar in his life... :321GFY

Gideon keeps spinning his self-righteous, misguided, delusional and convoluted tales to justify content theft, yet if he was ever capable of producing anything himself that was ripped off, you know he would be the first one screaming to the high heavens about it.

Alas, he is to lazy/unskilled to produce anything but obfuscational drivel, while kissing the asses of those whose sites he surfs and beats off to for free.

His only purpose in life appears to be to try and justify the theft of content created by others.

The funny thing is that none of his thoughts/posts are original. It's just plagiarized nonsense that Gideon, the puppet boy, cut and pasted from his masters whose boots he licks, to make him feel as if his trolling on GFY makes a difference. :2 cents:

ADG

Soon there will be nothing left to pirate.
The world will be ruled by chinese propaganda movies and adult dating bots.

I'm very surprised with our economy the way it is the White House hasn't done more to protect the few industries we still have with enforceable copyright laws.


.

wow mgm for sale ... incredible how much is for sale today ... with their casino project i thought "cool what a strong company" ...

http://jetsongreen.typepad.com/jetso..._las_vegas.jpg

Agreed. Very sad.
:disgust

You think its piracy that is causing this? how about putting out expensive shit movies and paying producers millions just to have their names on the film. fuck hollywood.

wow no wounder why they are not doing well with DVD sales slipping and casino revenue going down... maybe they should have stayed in just the movie biz...lol

MGM Grand at Foxwoods is…well…it’s so many things. It’s exciting, with 1,400 slot machines and 60 table games. It’s indulgent, with an array of world-class restaurants and celebrity chefs. It’s entertaining, with headline concerts, thrilling sporting events and non-stop nightclubs. It’s relaxing, with the incomparable G-Spa and two challenging, championship golf courses. It’s luxurious, with 825 ultra-modern guest rooms and 115,000 square feet of state-of-the-art meeting space. In a word, it’s Grand.

http://www.mgmatfoxwoods.com/About_Us.aspx

yup.

they pay these lame actors XX millions for these stupid flicks. oh gee, Fame only made 43 million so far? gimme a break.

its another bubble bursting.

Neither piracy nor DVD sales has caused this.

The MGM film library / studio has been bought, traded and sold numerous times over the past 2 decades or so and each time ended up buried under a mountain of debt.

This is just the latest in a series of fire sales.

listen when a company starts doing bad you have to think about what changed, paying movie stars etc lots of cash is nothing new.

plenty of people still go to the movies, in record numbers

dvd sales are there.

take a shit script, over pay talent and producers and have bad ticket sales.... thats the losing formula.

and its not like america is the only country these movies are released in.

and paying actors insanely huge amount of money is something new, past 10-15 years new.

do these ppl need 10+ million to act in some movie?

greed kills once again.

stupid fuckers

Piracy had NOTHING to do with the downfall of MGM. If NO piracy ever took place, they would still be going under.

And that's a fact... just like 99% of the porn companies. But it isn't like our Industry has a clue, they still think no sales can be made from piracy..

He's got a point there...

thats fact lol I mean seriously you gotta be high

theft is destroying music, movies, gaming, etc

how can you say that several million downloads an hour of stolen movies will not have an effect on an industry?

First, all 3 have posted record profits, at least once in two years - all had the biggest releases in history in the last two years. You may want to stop listening to the mpaa and actually read what's really happening.

Piracy is proven to create fans, buyers... it's proven pirates buy MORE music/movies than most people.

They are EXTREME collectors... often with 1000's of purchased CD's of music, movies and games. Like the guy in the xbox thread, pirated a game but has $15,000 in games for one console.

Every single person in this forum that has pirated or pirates, also buys.. 100% of them.

If you can't figure that out... then you shouldn't be in business.

WOW doesnt seem to be hurting at all. I personally dont think thigns are as bad as people make it out to be.

Wow has millions of monthly subscribers, you must buy each expansion and cannot copy the game. Gaming industry is making more than ever before. Record months...

:1orglaugh

"Every single person in this forum that has pirated or pirates, also buys.. 100% of them."

you are high or crazy or someone involved in the business of stealing content.

I dont read or care what RIAA or any org says, the numbers dont lie. MS / Bill gates who openly said he dont mind people using stolen copies of windows has now changed his tune, and I am not referring to MS shutting down tons of people the other day with modded xboxes.

The huge rapid decline in DVD sales will continue to rise as more people get to learn how to burn DVD's and internet connections become faster.

Porn itself is on decline for two reasons a) the huge amount of stolen porn all over the place b) the huge amount of people who got robbed while joining a site

things as bad as people make it? Yes some games come out and do well but a few days ago the following overall report was issued:

NPD: October video game sales tumble 19 percent

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...VwAlQD9BUAPD02

I meant, your "this is going to happen to every studio" stance :thumbsup

While one copmpany goes under, another is making record profits, you can either subscribe to the doom and gloom or look at the companies who are doing things right.

Blizzard is far from going under. Meanwhile WII are flying off shelf at $200/pop and Warcraft is about to increase members yet again. My brother bought Wii Rockband2 last night,... sales are down all around, people are broke. Gotta choose between latest Mario and paying light bill, I dont think its as bad as you guys make it though.

thats why there are industry reports, travel industry etc, if overall there is a 19% decline in the gaming industry it dont matter that some are doing well, its important to understand why a 19% decline.

TV shows almost one by one have less viewers, some by several million less viewers, that is because people are busy online (well in some cases watching stolen porn playing with stolen software or listening to stolen songs). To say pirate bay has no effect on things and others giving people access to content that they would have to pay for otherwise is just silly.

"I dont think its as bad as you guys make it though"

numbers dont lie, id like to be all positive too, but its those people who cant see facts that end up in bankruptcy court.

Ok, before the Internet... Movies, Music, Porn, VHS (vs. DVD), Games, etc.. ALL went up and down. Some went out of business, new ones came on. Big players purchased small players, and then went belly up.

BEFORE Piracy... It was like a jacked up economy was doing it.

So if an Industry posts a loss this month/quarter, it's not piracy.. when in the same year, they posted a record profits. Shocking that it could something other than piracy, I know.


DVD sales are down, the technology is changing. It's not like VHS got killed because of Piracy, it got killed because of new technology. I can now buy or rent my DVD's online, burn to a DVD to own CD or stream it.. and now I can make digital copies. <-- bingo!

Ahhh digital music the replacement technology for CD's..

Which is growing, created more bands, more followings, exposed more people to more music ever in history... oh the big bad studios call it "piracy" but us people that produce music, know it's heaven.


Now back to my Porn companies that have posted record profits this year, during a major recession as well... not all porn companies are down, actually all of my major clients are up this year over any other year in business.


Difference is... you're still marketing like it was 10 years ago, they aren't.

Trends, they go up and down. I said what I said (now we playing semantics) because you claimed this was going to happen to all studios. And I still don't think things are *that* bad, simple as that. I was reading few months back it was record profits, now they going bankrupt? Lol hardly. Just like the oil industry, when profits are up you dont hear shit, but wait until they loss a point on quarterly profits and bam, the oil crisis is upon us.

From the article...

"Not included in the October sales figures is Activision Blizzard Inc.'s "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," which went on sale Tuesday and broke entertainment records on its first day in stores. According to its publisher, it raked in an estimated $310 million in North America and the United Kingdom in 24 hours."


I will agree with you that Piracy does have 'bad' impacts within OUR Industry. A clear chatter of people say, screw paying every again. I can't deny that.

So screw those people, and market to the millions that will. That creates a problem though 'marketing those other millions' when we can't reach them.

Almost like... piracy isn't our problem, the traffic flow is.

Anyone who thinks piracy doesn't have something to do with this, is just lying to themselves.

I hang out on Rottentomatoes forums, and you wouldn't believe the cavalier attitude most people have about watching their movies downloaded to their computers.

[QUOTE=EscortBiz;16551046
Porn itself is on decline for two reasons a) the huge amount of stolen porn all over the place

b) the huge amount of people who got robbed while joining a site[/QUOTE]

BINGO I was one of the schmucks who got robbed joining Dancing Bear.com I never noticed the check box, $1500 later I cancelled my cc. I am supposed to know better,.imaging Joe surfer.

BUT Things will soon change over the next year That is a guarentee.

MGM - The Film Studio and MGM Mirage casinos are seperate corps. Only related by name........................

[QUOTE=katharos;16550820]wow mgm for sale ... incredible how much is for sale today ... with their casino project i thought "cool what a strong company" ...

they need to hold on a little longer..

what a lod of shit

they make a killing on moves like James Bond and Pink Panther

it's just some kind of scam they're pulling

Hollywood deserves to die. Not only is the cost structure absurd & obsolete, they produce unbelievable garbage. nothing but sequels & cartoon adaptions. Its pathetic.

So no more movies huh?


.

That was a nice little project they started before the economy tanked.

Look at the three titles of movies they have coming out. Do any of them sound even remotely good?

Piracy and the recession are good scapegoats, but they don't explain away problems such as... bad movies!