In its glory years, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was a Hollywood hit factory that churned out golden classics such as Mutiny on the Bounty and The Wizard of Oz. However, the US entertainment empire is to declare itself bankrupt last week under a pre-arranged deal with creditors to shed a crippling debt burden of more than US$4 billion.
After a year of wrangling over the troubled studio’s future, lenders to MGM are set to seize as much as 95 percent of the company, under a financial restructuring to be put before a bankruptcy judge in Los Angeles for approval.
Once in control, creditors intend to install the founders of a far smaller production company, Spyglass Entertainment, to run a slimmed-down version of MGM in the hope of reviving its fortunes. Spyglass bosses Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum are responsible for hits such as The Sixth Sense.
Insolvency amounts to a humiliating comedown for a studio with a back catalogue of 4,000 titles holding 205 Oscars between them. Financial paralysis has seen movie production grind to a halt: MGM’s only significant release this year was Hot Tub Time Machine that bombed at the box office.
Industry watchers say the tentative deal to put the company through a swift bankruptcy could pave the way for filming to restart. That bodes well for James Bond fans: work on a 23rd movie about the spy has been frozen while MGM, which owns the franchise, sorts out its problems.
The Bond series was one of MGM’s most valuable assets. Daniel Craig, star of the Bond films, has made no secret of his impatience to make a follow-up to 2008’s Quantum of Solace; he said recently that he was “champing at the bit” to get going.
MGM has changed hands frequently in recent decades. Its owners have included drinks magnate Edgar Bronfman, casino billionaire Kirk Kerkorian and CNN’s founder Ted Turner. Critics say it has been milked as a cash cow and starved of long-term strategic thinking.
The studio has been laden with debt since a 2005 buyout by a consortium including Sony, Comcast and private equity firms Providence and TPG, and was due to make a US$450 million repayment on Friday.
Its lenders include major banks such as JP Morgan Chase and Credit Suisse, plus corporate raider, Carl Icahn, who specializes in making money out of distressed companies and who has been agitating, unsuccessfully, for a merger with MGM’s rival, Lionsgate.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
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