India’s Reliance Entertainment may acquire MGM
About a dozen groups—Time Warner, News Corp., and Lions Gate Entertainment rumored among them—were reportedly considering bids for the debt-ridden MGM. Reliance is said to be one of the frontrunners.
MGM, which made such classic films as Gone With The Wind and The Wizard of Oz and currently owns the rights to the James Bond franchise, has about $3.7 billion in debt. The famed studio faces a key repayment deadline on January 31. The bids are expected to be in the range of $1.5 billion to $2 billion. MGM generates about $300 million a year in revenue.
Reliance already has a growing position in Hollywood—it owns a controlling stake in filmmaker Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks and has struck production deals with Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Jim Carrey.
Reliance produced the current Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots, which released at the end of December and broke U.S. box-office records.
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January 18, 2010
