Word: mgm
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Smelling the Public. Kerkorian hopes that Aubrey, whom he met for the first time only two weeks ago, can put new vigor into the ailing MGM lion. Kerkorian wanted a show business veteran to replace financial man Polk, but his choice for the presidency, Herb Jaffe, a vice president of United Artists, turned the job down. Gregson Bautzer, the Los Angeles socialite lawyer who counts both Kerkorian and Aubrey among his clients, introduced the two men at the Beverly Hilton and recommended Aubrey for the job. Bautzer's sales pitch: "Jim Aubrey has a real good sense of smell...
...MGM is expected to report a loss of about $25 million for the year that ended Aug. 31. Deficits were biggest in the film and record divisions; earnings from television have also suffered, and of the major divisions of the company only the music publishing business raised its profits. Apparently, MGM's creative people have lost touch with what the public wants in films. Last year nearly all the company's films lost money. MGM's last big hit was Doctor Zhivago...
...August, Kerkorian had picked up 22% of MOM's stock through another tender. Now his holdings will rise to at least 32% and perhaps to as much as 45% of the company's shares, depending on how much of an estimated $59 million worth of proffered MGM shares he actually buys...
Whatever his decision, Kerkorian should be able to wrest MGM's reins from Edgar Bronfman, who is president of Seagram's, chairman of MGM and owner of about 16% of MGM stock. (TIME Inc. owns 5%.) Bronfman strongly opposed Kerkorian's first tender offer but took no position on the second. Kerkorian flew to Manhattan last week to meet MGM executives but kept silent as to whether he will try to oust Bronfman or President Louis ("Bo") Polk from their MGM posts...
...coup was shrewdly timed. Before Kerkorian started bidding, MGM stock had dropped from a 1968 high of $55 to $29 a share. The company recently estimated that it lost at least $25 million during the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31. Most of the deficit, however, grew out of MGM's decision to write off as losses some box-office flops and a great part of its slow-selling inventory of monaural records. Kerkorian thus bought into a company that may be poised for a turnaround. Bronfman has already predicted a profit for MGM in fiscal...