Since early this year, billionaire investor Carl Icahn has been trying to buy Lionsgate, the production company behind movies like the Saw franchise and TV shows including Weeds and Mad Men. With 20% of the company’s stock, Icahn is currently Lionsgate’s largest shareholder. He also owns a significant amount of MGM’s debt.
MGM, which is currently going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, originally announced a deal with Spyglass this week. The agreement would make Spyglass chiefs Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum the new co-CEOs of MGM. Icahn is now trying to block this deal and get Lionsgate to merge with MGM instead. He has interests in both companies and has been adamant and aggressive in his approach. What started as a hostile takeover of Lionsgate has turned into a grad scale bi-company clusterfuck.
MGM has been unable to make any new movies during its bankruptcy bout. The former media juggernaut owns titles such as the James Bond franchise, but the only major film its released this year has been Hot Tub Time Machine. While going through bankruptcy, the production company has been unable to finance or release any major pictures.
One movie that’s had an especially tough time during this phase is Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, which MGM owns the rights to. Guillermo del Toro was originally slated as the director, but dropped out because funding fell through and the production was a total disaster. Warner Bros is now co-producing with MGM and Peter Jackson has stepped into the director’s chair.
After someone finally buys MGM, it will most likely serve as a stripped down production entity with no marketing or distribution department.
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