MGM-UA Split Falls Through

A deal to recreate MGM and United Artists as separate movie companies collapsed today, just two weeks after it was struck, because financiers Kirk Kerkorian and Burt Sugarman couldn’t agree on terms.

MGM-UA Communications Co., controlled by Kerkorian, was to have been split into its original parts in a $400-million deal that would have given Sugarman and two independent movie producers a substantial share of a “new” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Two weeks of negotiations have failed to produce a definitive agreement, said Stephen Silbert, MGM-UA chairman and chief executive officer.