MCA Expected to Announce Frank Biondi as New CEO

MCA Inc. is expected to name former Viacom Inc. Chief Executive Frank J. Biondi Jr. today as its chairman and chief executive, filling the last major gap in the entertainment company’s management ranks following its acquisition last year by spirits giant Seagram Co., industry sources said.

Biondi, 51, will fill the position left vacant by Hollywood legend Lew Wasserman, who became chairman emeritus after Seagram paid $5.7 billion for 80% of MCA in June. At MCA, Biondi will work with President and Chief Operating Officer Ron Meyer, who, sources said, has a good relationship with Biondi and has been encouraging him to take the job.

Today’s expected announcement comes after Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone, who fired Biondi in January, agreed Monday to waive a clause in Biondi’s contract restricting him from working for a competitor for one year after his departure.

Although there are said to be no formal concessions being given to Viacom by MCA, sources said MCA has informally agreed to take a hands-off position regarding Viacom’s launch next Monday of the new Nick at Nite’s TV Land.

MCA and Viacom jointly own the USA Network cable channel. Under that agreement, nonnews and nonsports cable channels that would compete with USA Network are supposed to be launched through the joint venture.

Viacom has insisted that TV Land is an extension of its Nickelodeon channel, which was grandfathered into the USA agreement. MCA has said it wanted to reserve to right to challenge that grandfather clause, and even another for Viacom’s lucrative MTV network.

The deal bringing Biondi to MCA had hit a logjam in recent weeks. On Monday, sources said, Redstone called Biondi to tell him he was free to take the job, following it up with a formal letter.

Sources said Biondi has had an agreement to join MCA for about six weeks, so all that needs to be accomplished today is some last-minute paperwork.

Speculation about who will run MCA, which operates such businesses as Universal Pictures, MCA Music and the Universal Studios theme parks, began even before Seagram and its chief executive, Edgar Bronfman Jr., formally made its acquisition from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. last June.

Bronfman came close to hiring Michael Ovitz, the former top Hollywood agent who later became president of Walt Disney Co. Others Bronfman is said to have courted include mogul Barry Diller and Warner Bros. co-Chairman Terry Semel.

Biondi became available when Redstone abruptly fired him Jan. 17, taking over the day-to-day responsibilities for the company that owns Paramount Pictures, MTV and the Blockbuster chain of video stores. Redstone said Biondi’s more laid-back management style did not work at a company that had grown to the size of Viacom.

Despite Redstone’s criticism, Biondi has garnered wide respect on Wall Street and in the entertainment business for his steady management of Viacom over the years. Sensing that experienced entertainment CEOs don’t become available often, Bronfman approached Biondi within days of the firing. Speculation picked up after the two were seen lunching in New York. But Redstone stood in the way, initially trying to use MCA’s courtship to gain concessions he wanted.

Biondi, a longtime New York resident, is said to be eager to move to Los Angeles to take the job. He was on the verge of moving to Beverly Hills in 1987 to take a position with Coca-Cola’s entertainment group, had bought a home here and enrolled his children in school. That all changed when Redstone hired him to work at Viacom.

Biondi, who is a former HBO executive, had been regarded as Redstone’s heir apparent. The two successfully outdueled Diller to take over Paramount Communications and to add Blockbuster to Paramount.

At MCA, Biondi is expected to help Meyer carry out Bronfman’s mandate of improving historically sluggish profit margins, revamping its television operation and further developing its profitable theme parks.

Biondi will find some operations new, notably a large music company, which Viacom doesn’t have.