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    MGM fights to survive

    Faced with $3.7 billion in debt due in July 2012, MGM will pay $250 million in interest alone by April 2010. Just think if that money could be spent on actual film production. Shame on Harry Sloan who took over the moribund studio in 2004 after Sony and Comcast and Providence Equity Partners and TPG Capital paid roughly $5 billion in debt and equity to acquire then publicly traded MGM from its majority owner Kirk Kerkorian. But he waited, and waited, and waited, until it was too late and the credit crisis had begun, to put MGM on firm financial footing. But I hear his production boss Mary Parent is helping to make that happen now after nagging everyone to get ahead of this coming 2012 crisis with the intent of freeing up the company from some of this long-term debt to allow additional capital to finance more productions for her. The good news is that MGM (a private company so, frankly, it can claim anything it wants to without fear of the SEC) isn't going out of business right this minute. Not with a library that throws off half a billion dollars annually.

    In fact, the studio is making movies (see below) while reporting today that it made its numbers for last year and are current on its debt payments. I'd love to believe this. Even more, I'm relieved the studio is coming clean about its problems after I'd be hearing for the past month that MGM debtholders and equity stakeholders have been fighting to the point where both sides are "on a war footing". That's been exacerbated by the coming audit this summer to identify ongoing projects, etc. The fear is, if the auditors were to represent that the studio isn't a going concern, that would bring on a battle royale. And I'd also heard that UA's Merrill Lynch money was "hanging by a thread".

    <Snipped by Moderator>


    http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/
    Last edited by Bagpuss; 14 May 2009, 05:09 PM. Reason: Articles featuring content from other sites mustn't be reproduced in full on GW.:)

    #2
    Originally posted by JackO'Neill View Post
    Faced with $3.7 billion in debt due in July 2012, MGM will pay $250 million in interest alone by April 2010. Just think if that money could be spent on actual film production. Shame on Harry Sloan who took over the moribund studio in 2004 after Sony and Comcast and Providence Equity Partners and TPG Capital paid roughly $5 billion in debt and equity to acquire then publicly traded MGM from its majority owner Kirk Kerkorian. But he waited, and waited, and waited, until it was too late and the credit crisis had begun, to put MGM on firm financial footing. But I hear his production boss Mary Parent is helping to make that happen now after nagging everyone to get ahead of this coming 2012 crisis with the intent of freeing up the company from some of this long-term debt to allow additional capital to finance more productions for her. The good news is that MGM (a private company so, frankly, it can claim anything it wants to without fear of the SEC) isn't going out of business right this minute. Not with a library that throws off half a billion dollars annually.

    In fact, the studio is making movies (see below) while reporting today that it made its numbers for last year and are current on its debt payments. I'd love to believe this. Even more, I'm relieved the studio is coming clean about its problems after I'd be hearing for the past month that MGM debtholders and equity stakeholders have been fighting to the point where both sides are "on a war footing". That's been exacerbated by the coming audit this summer to identify ongoing projects, etc. The fear is, if the auditors were to represent that the studio isn't a going concern, that would bring on a battle royale. And I'd also heard that UA's Merrill Lynch money was "hanging by a thread".

    <Snipped>
    http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/

    Yeah, I think you lost me after the first paragraph.
    Last edited by Bagpuss; 14 May 2009, 05:09 PM. Reason: Snipped the requote.:)
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      #3
      Interesting article...

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        #4
        Frankly, I don't think this is all that bad for Stargate. They've said they need to have more productions, and stargate is low budget, low risk (especially the movies), and Skiffy is helping with production costs. The lenders can either cut MGM some slack or lose everything they've invested.
        Edit: And maybe they won't sit on the movies for over a year, either. We'll get these a lot faster than the last two.
        Last edited by VSS; 14 May 2009, 04:20 PM.

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          #5
          Here's a shorter article without all the editorializing, from Forbes: UPDATE 1-MGM eyes $3.7 bln debt refinancing-source. To me, this sounds like it'll be do-or-die in a couple of years, not right this minute.

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            #6
            well time to sell stargate to NBC universal
            https://twitter.com/#!/Solar_wind84

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              #7
              Originally posted by Pharaoh Atem View Post
              well time to sell stargate to NBC universal
              Please...God no. X_x

              There are no regrets. Thank you Brad Wright and everyone else for SGU,
              and the amazing Stargate franchise in general.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by VSS View Post
                Frankly, I don't think this is all that bad for Stargate. They've said they need to have more productions, and stargate is low budget, low risk (especially the movies), and Skiffy is helping with production costs. The lenders can either cut MGM some slack or lose everything they've invested.
                Edit: And maybe they won't sit on the movies for over a year, either. We'll get these a lot faster than the last two.
                They never, it takes a long time to get a movie ready for release.

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                  #9
                  I am more curious as to what the 'Mod Snip' was???

                  Anyways imagine knowing in a couple of years you had to pay $3.7b in debt....that would cause a few sleepless nights no doubt!!
                  sigpic

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                    #10
                    Seeing as you asked ,and others might be curious....

                    See the edit box for the reason for snippage,then click the link through to read the original full content.
                    That way the GW rule is met ,and their site gets the traffic & ad hits for their article.

                    Originally posted by GW Rules
                    # Copyrighted material. Do not post a copyrighted article or other material in its entirety on the forum, without permission from the copyright holder. Instead, post interesting selections/quotations, citing the source, and a link to the full story if it's available on the Web. This includes news stories and other material from GateWorld itself.
                    The place to "Gate" to during Outages for updates and info:

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by jenks View Post
                      They never, it takes a long time to get a movie ready for release.
                      No, BW did say they'd be out faster this time around. Now they've got extra incentive.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by VSS View Post
                        No, BW did say they'd be out faster this time around. Now they've got extra incentive.
                        It takes about a year to get these things on the shelves no matter how much incentive they have, if they're out quicker than the last ones then it won't be by much. The Atlantis one may be out a lot earlier though, because it will air on SyFy first, if it gets made that is...

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by jenks View Post
                          It takes about a year to get these things on the shelves no matter how much incentive they have, if they're out quicker than the last ones then it won't be by much. The Atlantis one may be out a lot earlier though, because it will air on SyFy first, if it gets made that is...
                          I'm just reporting what BW said, that's all.
                          Spoiler:
                          GW: Your shooting schedule is usually late February to early October. And then for the two movies last year, they didn't come for almost a year after they had been shot. Is that going to be typical, do you think?

                          BW: Well, Continuum was ready a lot sooner. We finished the film, but our in-house visual effects department was devoting its energy still to The Ark of Truth. So it basically sat on the shelf waiting for the opportunity to go through the post-production process, rather than hiring a whole new, second group -- knowing that there was going to be a significant window between the two releases anyway.

                          Ark of Truth wasn't a year -- it was less than a year. Continuum was, because of that wait.

                          GW: I see filming in '07 and then the movies came out in '08, and seemed to be doing so well in sales, that I just kept waiting for MGM to say, "Let's do more! Let's do more!" But now if we're looking at shooting them in '09, is it going to be 2010 before we see SG-1 again?


                          While waiting for the next movie, fans can at least look forward to the remix of the original SG-1 pilot.
                          BW: Well, it's funny that you should say that. It's not why I did it, but my "Children of the Gods -- Final Cut," which I think is what we're going to end up calling it, should be available in that interim. I think it's certainly not a new movie, but it's a new look at an old movie. And I think that people will like that. And maybe the releases of the two movies won't take quite as long as they did the first time around.

                          Keep in mind: Nobody really knew ... we had a lot of faith that the Stargate movies were going to do really well, but they surprised everybody. Robert and I maybe were the least surprised, because of our belief in what we were trying to do -- but maybe everyone feels that way who makes a movie! But they surprised a lot of people, and it did well enough that I think things might happen faster the second time around.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by VSS View Post
                            I'm just reporting what BW said, that's all.
                            Spoiler:
                            GW: Your shooting schedule is usually late February to early October. And then for the two movies last year, they didn't come for almost a year after they had been shot. Is that going to be typical, do you think?

                            BW: Well, Continuum was ready a lot sooner. We finished the film, but our in-house visual effects department was devoting its energy still to The Ark of Truth. So it basically sat on the shelf waiting for the opportunity to go through the post-production process, rather than hiring a whole new, second group -- knowing that there was going to be a significant window between the two releases anyway.

                            Ark of Truth wasn't a year -- it was less than a year. Continuum was, because of that wait.

                            GW: I see filming in '07 and then the movies came out in '08, and seemed to be doing so well in sales, that I just kept waiting for MGM to say, "Let's do more! Let's do more!" But now if we're looking at shooting them in '09, is it going to be 2010 before we see SG-1 again?


                            While waiting for the next movie, fans can at least look forward to the remix of the original SG-1 pilot.
                            BW: Well, it's funny that you should say that. It's not why I did it, but my "Children of the Gods -- Final Cut," which I think is what we're going to end up calling it, should be available in that interim. I think it's certainly not a new movie, but it's a new look at an old movie. And I think that people will like that. And maybe the releases of the two movies won't take quite as long as they did the first time around.

                            Keep in mind: Nobody really knew ... we had a lot of faith that the Stargate movies were going to do really well, but they surprised everybody. Robert and I maybe were the least surprised, because of our belief in what we were trying to do -- but maybe everyone feels that way who makes a movie! But they surprised a lot of people, and it did well enough that I think things might happen faster the second time around.
                            lol, he's talking about the green light, not the post production and marketing

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                              #15
                              MGM's top two earners (So i believe) Are Bond then Stargate......I can't see Sony, MGM's owners (Again so i thought) letting the top two earners fall with MGM.... if MGM falls that is.


                              'You gotta admit, Vampires are just plain cool'

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