Kerkorian hits bargaining table - again :: Namibia Internet Gateway cc ::

Articles: Kerkorian hits bargaining table - again

Posted by admin on Friday, July 02, 2004 - 12:15 AM

Flush with cash from a extraordinary dividend payout and basking in the glow of a pending blockbuster casino merger, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer controlling holder Kirk Kerkorian now has another eager suitor ready to run him out of Hollywood.
This week, Time Warner came forward with an offer to buy the venerable studio for $4.7 billion to $4.8 billion, according to people close to the deal. This bid is now on the table alongside a $5 billion package proposed by Sony. Kerkorian owns nearly three quarters of MGM and recently made $1.4 billion from an extraordinary $8 per share dividend payout in May. That payout put the previously debt-fee MGM in the hole to the tune of $2 billion, an obligation any buyer would have to assume. The 87-year-old billionaire also controls casino giant MGM Mirage which last month cut a deal to buy rival Mandalay Resort Group for just under $8 billion in cash and assumption of debt. That deal, currently pending before a side array of state and federal regulators, will vault MGM Mirage past Caesars into the No. 1 spot in the casino gambling business when it closes next year. According to sources, the structure of the Time Warner-MGM deal would give MGM holders $13 a share -- the same as Sony's offer - while Kerkorian would end up with a private, unregistered class of Time Warner stock valued at $11.50.

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