Report on Matsushita Boosts MCA Stock Price : Entertainment: The shares jumped $4 after a Tokyo newspaper article said the Japanese suitor might bid $7.75 billion for the whole company.

MCA Inc. stock rose $4 a share Friday to close at $57.875 in New York Stock Exchange trading amid reports of progress in the entertainment company’s talks to be acquired by Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.

Wall Street traders pointed in particular to a report from Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun, a large Tokyo newspaper. The report said Matsushita executives had decided to bid for all of MCA, reversing a reported move to buy just MCA’s film and TV divisions.

In an Oct. 10 story, which circulated in translation among investors in New York on Friday, the Japanese paper quoted an unnamed Matsushita executive as saying: “Although it is more costly, it is more realistic for us to acquire MCA in its entirety and then reorganize the unprofitable divisions, perhaps directly under the Matsushita Group, if necessary.”

MCA and Matsushita representatives declined to comment on the report, which said Matsushita might pay about 1 trillion yen, or roughly $7.75 billion, for all of MCA except its broadcast division.

The report also identified Matsushita Executive Vice President Masahiko Hirata as the company’s chief negotiator in talks with MCA.

Hirata, 59 years old, is a key adviser to Matsushita President Akio Tanii. “He is close to the president, and is in charge of the company’s international diversification strategy,” said Yoshi Tsurumi, professor of international business at the City University of New York’s Baruch College.

An accountant by training, Hirata was previously Matsushita’s chief financial officer and at one time worked for the company’s 50%-owned Victor Co. of Japan unit, according to earlier press reports.

According to a 1987 report in the Japan Economic Journal, Matsushita President Tanii has typically relied on Hirata and another strategist, Executive Vice President Shoji Sakuma, in executive major corporate moves.

It remains unclear whether Hirata has begun face-to-face talks with MCA executives. The companies have tried to keep a tight lid on their discussions, but Japanese publications have repeatedly reported talks with Matsushita executives over the past two weeks.