Word: bronfmans
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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That 1985 Dionne Warwick ballad, Whisper in the Dark, summons up the erotic appeal of the unknown. And now the man who wrote its lyrics, Edgar Bronfman Jr., is coming closer to possessing something he has desired for most of his 39 years: a Hollywood studio. Last week Bronfman, the president and chief executive officer of Seagram Co., was deep in negotiations with Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial to take control of MCA, which owns record labels, theme parks, TV shows, a pleasant parcel of Southern California real estate-and Universal Studios. Seagram, the Canadian purveyor of whiskey, wine...
...that "there is no assurance an agreement will be reached." But if the deal does fly, Matsushita will have escaped from a nettlesome marriage, though at a steep price (about a 35% loss on the original investment, owing mostly to the weakness of the dollar vs. the yen). And Bronfman, the wandering son who officially took over the family business only last year, will invest his shareholders' money so he can realize his dream. He will ascend from mere billionaire status to a more glamorous title: moviemaker...
...Already Bronfman has earned the title of mischiefmaker. His sorties are tilting the fortunes of several prominent companies-not just Matsushita, MCA and his own but also Du Pont, Time Warner and infant multimedia outfit DreamWorks SKG. Last week, for $8.8 billion, the chemical giant bought back most of Seagram's 24.1% of Du Pont stock. Time Warner, of which Seagram owns a provocative 14.9%, braced for a messy stock scramble should Bronfman sell his shares. DreamWorks also looked to the shy, dapper mogul for indications that he would retain MCA's current, embattled management and thus be in line...
Entertainment executives saw MCA as a smart buy for the 21st century: surely there are rosier prospects for software than for spirits. But Bronfman wasn't selling his whiskey interests; he was giving up on a company with a strong present (Du Pont stock accounted for nearly 70% of Seagram's pretax profits last year) and a robust future. Unsurprisingly, Wall Street greeted both the Du Pont sale and the MCA negotiations with derision. On Friday Moody's Investors Service announced that it was considering "the possible downgrade" of Seagram's debt. Seagram stock dropped nearly 17% during the week...
Close watchers of Seagram thought Bronfman got too little for his Du Pont stake. Says Ken Shea, an analyst at Standard & Poor's: "It doesn't make sense to dump a solid business like Du Pont, which throws off good dividends, and take on a much riskier investment in MCA. But then the press accounts of Edgar Jr. don't give him a lot of credit. They paint him as a Dan Quayle who is ready to wreck Seagram...