Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (AKA MGM) is once again searching for a buyer as the streaming wars reach a fever pitch.
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Once again MGM is putting itself up for sale, and it appears that it is asking for $5B. Over the last few years the studio has explored a few sales, with the latest round resulting in talks with Netflix and Apple amongst others. Apparently, the asking price got in the way, but nearly a year later thnigs have changed greatly.
This time around MGM is going out into a field with even more competitors and every one of them is hungry for content. The MGM library will come with over 4,000 film titles and over 17,000 hours of television episodes.
In this day and age of so many streamers, if the price stays around $5B, the buyer will actually be getting a bargain. MGM generated $1.5B in 2019 off of licensing its catalog. The studio comes complete with the Rocky/Creed franchise, the James Bond film collection, Gone With the Wind, and much more. On the TV side, it’s most recent hit is The Handmaid’s Tale.
Of all the companies looking for content right now, we imagine Disney will be the only one to sit this potential sale out. With the recent purchase of the Fox catalog, it is unlikely that Disney would be able to get through a government review of the purchase. But it is quite possible that Apple and Netflix could come calling again to try to scoop up some of those more valuable properties.
No timeline on the sale has been mentioned, but we don’t expect to hear anything until early 2021.
