Turner Reportedly Balking at Asking Price of MGM/UA

Despite Ted Turner’s hankering for another film library, the cable TV entrepreneur is said to be balking at MGM/UA Communications’ asking price.

“They’re just too far apart in price,” said one source familiar with the talks.

Tagged for sale for nearly two years, MGM/UA was almost sold this fall to the Australian Qintex Group for $1.5 billion, or $25 per share, but the deal collapsed after Qintex’s financial problems surfaced in October.

Turner has emerged as a leading candidate to buy the studio because its biggest asset--the 1,000-title United Artists film library--could feed Turner’s various cable TV networks, including the fast-growing Turner Network Television or “TNT.”

Although Turner’s company is still debt-laden from his purchase of the MGM film library three years ago, he apparently has the backing of his two biggest shareholders, Time Warner Inc. and Tele-Communications Inc., to make an MGM/UA bid under certain conditions.

None of the sources would say just how much Turner is empowered to offer.

MGM/UA’s controlling shareholder Kirk Kerkorian still wants $24 to $25 a share, sources indicated Thursday, despite a history of lower bids and damage to studio morale as the auction process drags on. But another industry executive said potential buyers are “low-balling” Kerkorian with offers in the $15-to-$20 range.

Neither Kerkorian, his attorney, nor MGM/UA’s chief executive returned calls, and Turner could not be reached for comment.

In trading on the New York Stock Exchange, MGM/UA closed at $19.50, unchanged from the previous day.

Earlier in the year, Kerkorian had accepted a Qintex offer of $20 per share, but the price jumped after media mogul Rupert Murdoch offered $23.16 per share in September.

Qintex, the Australian media and resorts company that outbid Murdoch for MGM/UA in a final round of bidding in September, last week bowed to its bankers and agreed to appoint a receiver and manager for the company. With its application to an Australian court, Qintex sought to enter receivership to prevent creditors from trying to liquidate the company.