MGM to Support Blu-ray Disc Format

[Marwin]

MGM to Support Blu-ray Disc Format

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. announced today its support of the new high definition Blu-ray Disc format. In cooperation with the Blu-ray Disc Association, MGM plans to begin releasing film and television titles from its world-renowned library when the new Blu-ray hardware launches in North America, Japan and Europe.

"MGM's focus has always been to provide movie lovers complete access to the world's largest modern film library in the most technologically advanced formats," commented Harry Sloan, Chairman and CEO of MGM studios. "Adopting this new Blu-ray technology, with its expanded storage capacity and increased interactive capabilities, allows us to continue to provide our customers with the best movie viewing experience available."

"This is a tremendous win for movie lovers everywhere," said Howard Stringer, Chairman and CEO, Sony Corporation. "The Blu-ray Disc format provides a completely new viewing experience, and consumers can now look forward to enjoying content from the world's largest library of modern films, including titles from franchises such as James Bond and The Pink Panther in this amazing new format."

[zombie]

"This is a tremendous win for movie lovers everywhere," said Howard Stringer, Chairman and CEO, Sony Corporation

LOL, is this guy serious?? Sony owns MGM. I cannot believe Sony's MGM branch actually issued a press release for this. It's like, duh!

I'm as pro Blu-ray as can be but this is just too funny!

[iceman]

Yeah, a bit obvious :> but they probably wanted to create som extra hype and just state it for the record.

[Alex Pallas]

Originally Posted by n2blu

LOL, is this guy serious?? Sony owns MGM. I cannot believe Sony's MGM branch actually issued a press release for this. It's like, duh!

I'm as pro Blu-ray as can be but this is just too funny!

yeah, but i'm suprised it wasn't done sooner

[Marwin]

Yup, it came as no surprise, but I guess they wanted to say it just so no one had any doubt left in their mind. I think I read somewhere that Sony only owns 20% of MGM, so they still had to convince the other partners/owners that putting out the content on Blu-ray would be a good idea.

[thunderhawk]

Oh, so Sony only owns 20 % of MGM... I thought Sony owned it for 100 %.
Thanks for the information

[Marwin]

MGM is owned by an investor consortium comprised of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corporation of America, Comcast Corporation, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group. For more information, visit http://www.mgm.com/

Sony is just one out of many owners, but don't quote me on the 20% number as I don't remember where I saw it

[zombie]

But Sony owns the largest share and thus can be very persuasive in which direction MGM goes, correct?

[Marwin]

Obviously, hehe

[zombie]

I had to ask because this thread is the first time I've read that Sony only owned a share of MGM and not the entire company.

[lifeboat]

Here is proof that Sony owns 20% of MGM:

"Is MGM Cutting Sony from the Script?"
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...3005_db011.htm

Eric Klien
http://lifeboat.com

[zombie]

With its 20% stake, Sony will get its share of the upside if MGM does come roaring back. Or Sony, under pressure to restructure due to weak electronics sales, could be pressed to buy out the partners to keep the company -- and its very valuable library of older films -- from going to another studio

Great article! Thanks for posting the link.

[Alex Pallas]

i thought they owned %100 percent of it, shows what i know, i need to stop getting all my tech news from news.com