Will the Lion be Caged?

Looks like it's down to one suitor: Variety reported today that Time Warner pulled up stakes in the race for the library, with CEO Richard Parsons ceding to a superior $5 billion bid from the Sony investment group (see article). It would appear that Sony and its moneyed partners Texas Pacific Group and Providence Equity Partners have clinched the prize, but it wouldn't be the first time that an auction for MGM ended rather anticlimactically (see articles here and here).

The Sony rebid was in response to Time Warner's upped $4.5 billion bid last week that threatened to have the final gavel bang. We'll see what happens this week. With the library in Sony's hands, it will be interesting to see if they decide to get back into heavier television production.