Jeepers... will somebody just buy this company already?
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Sony
Now comes word that Time Warner
I've also read speculation that even Bill Gates might want to enhance his Hollywood connections. Imagine Microsoft
I'm not necessarily sure Gates would be doing the best thing for his shareholders by buying MGM, and quite frankly I expect this concept to remain forever in the ether of inconsequential rumor. Disney
Investors in MGM have had quite an interesting ride of late. They got a nice dividend, although at the time the firm had to take on substantial liability to pay for it as Seth Jayson mentioned. Of course, nowadays that isn't so much of a concern once the company makes a deal, as the dividend will essentially have been paid by other people's money. Plus, the latest earnings report was okay, especially from the point of view of top-line growth as leveraged to its library. This reinforces the point to buyers that they are getting premium goods.
Seems like the pitches are still being made for this script -- can't wait to see who eventually gets the production deal. And as I mentioned in my last piece on this subject, be wary of speculating in merger scenarios.
Fool contributor Steven Mallas owns shares of Disney.