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MGM confirms IPO plans
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August 5, 1997: 5:26 p.m. ET
Stock sale comes just a year after Kerkorian bought it for third time
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., the Hollywood studio responsible for more than six decades of hits from "Gone with the Wild" to "Goldeneye," confirmed it will go public.
MGM said Tuesday it plans to publicly offer common stock through a syndication of banks. Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan are expected to lead the underwriting, people familiar with the situation told CNNfn.
The initial public offering comes only a year after billionaire Kirk Kerkorian bought the movie studio for the third time. The last time MGM was a publicly traded company in the 1960s, it was raided by Kerkorian and taken private.
Kerkorian then sold MGM to Ted Turner in 1986, only to buy back the rights to the studio's name and logo that year. Turner still retains control of the MGM film library prior to 1986.
In November 1990, MGM was sold once more to Pathe Communications, which was controlled by Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti for $1.8 billion. By 1992, after severe financial problems, MGM's board and creditors stripped Parretti of control over the movie studio.
From 1992 until last year, the assets were placed with the French bank Credit Lyonnais, who oversaw the 1996 auction to Kerkorian. And, in order to strengthen the company's value, Kerkorian bought the video libraries of Orion and Goldwyn Entertainment, along with three film studios, from John Kluge's Metromedia Co. in April.
-- Robert Liu
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MGM/UA
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