*Lions Gate out of MGM bidding

It offered between $1.3 billion and $1.4 billion, MGM said it was too low, and that was that, the WSJ is posting. That leaves Time Warner and Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik as the only bidders left standing. But remember that the MGM creditors are owed almost $4 billion and none of the offers comes close to even $2 billion. Of course, MGM could say no thanks to everybody and proceed with a pre-planned bankruptcy of some kind. A source told the Journal that the decision to back out had nothing to do with Lions Gate shareholder Carl Icahn's displeasure that the company was going after MGM.

*Bloomberg is reporting that MGM creditors will not accept any of the offers. Lenders are exploring other options - namely, to keep the place independent.