Sony Enters Agreement To Acquire MGM

A group headed by Sony Corp. of America has an agreement in place to acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) – the last major independent film studio in Hollywood. It had been thought that Warner Bros. had sealed a deal for the studio, but a new offer was made by the Sony group over the weekend for approximately $2.85 billion in cash, as well as the clearing of all of the studio’s $2 billion worth of debts. Although MGM has become less of a force in recent years, and has backed off a brief foray into mid-'90s game publishing (Wargames, Machine Hunter, Rollerball) in favor of selective licensing to third party publishers, the company’s highly valued archive of older motion pictures is seen as perfect fodder for future DVD releases. Of particular game relevance, the company also owns distribution rights for the James Bond franchise, which in turn may have an impact on Electronic Arts’ current use of the license. Other movie properties licensed for videogames which might eventually be available for Sony use include Stargate (recently licensed by German publisher JoWood), Robocop (used extensively by a pre-bankruptcy Titus) and Rocky (a pair of recent games by UbiSoft).