Los Angeles, July 23: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer will return some of its nearly one billion dollars in cash to shareholders if its bid to buy Vivendi Universal Entertainment fails, MGM chief executive Alex Yemenidjian said today. MGM is one of several companies vying for the entertainment assets of Paris-based Vivendi Universal. Those assets include universal studios, its theme parks, cable channels such as the sci-fi network and a television production business.
MGM has offered 11.5 billion dollars in cash for VUE. That bid remains on the table after MGM this week received some of the more detailed information it was seeking. Yemenidjian declined to detail the negotiations but said MGM would not overpay and was thinking about its options if its bid should fail.
``We are not prepared to overpay for VUE or any other asset for that matter,'' Yemenidjian said during a conference call with analysts to discuss MGM's second quarter earnings.
Yemenidjian said he remains committed to his long-term goal to make MGM a bigger company through acquisitions. ``Our focus hasn't changed,'' he said. ``We have the ability to do that and return some wealth to our shareholders.'' Other bidders for VUE include John Malone's Liberty Media Corp., General Electric Co.'s NBC, a group led by former Vivendi owner Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Viacom Inc.
MGM reported that losses widened in the second quarter, due mainly to a one-time charge related to its sale of three cable channels back to Cablevision Systems Corp. Bureau Report