It'll Be Filet Mignon for the Lion

Time Warner, seeking to undercut Sony's involvement, is putting its cash pile and lowered debt levels to shift to an all cash offer for MGM, thought to be $4.5 billion, as reported today in Variety (see article). It's still unclear who will come out on top as Sony is purported to be willing to put $4.7 billion in cash on the table as part of their reportedly "complicated" offer, per an article in today's Los Angeles Times (see article).

Regardless of the party that may or may not become ultimately victorious in this Hollywood safari, it's likely that MGM's production activities will cease as a separate endeavor, with projects brought under the large film groups of either WB or Sony. As for MGM's successful home video group (highlighting the attraction the library titles), let's hope there's not too much redundancy in the new organization.

Of course, at the end of the day MGM may still chug along as a second tier major studio without any of the conglomerate leverage of its competitors.