Kluge Boosts Stake in Orion: Struggling Orion...

Kluge Boosts Stake in Orion: Struggling Orion Pictures received a boost as majority shareholder Metromedia Co., controlled by billionaire John Kluge, increased its stake to 80% from 70%. Orion, battered by a string of duds at the box office, said Metromedia had exercised warrants to buy slightly more than 4.3 million shares of common stock at $6 a share. The transaction will give Orion, which lost $2.5 million on revenue of $110 million in its first quarter, a $25-million cash infusion. Orion’s stock rose 37.5 cents to $9.875 a share on the NYSE.