LATE BREAKING NEWS - MOVIE GALLERY AGREES TO BUY HOLLYWOOD ENTERTAINMENT
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
Movie Gallery, Inc. agreed to buy Hollywood Entertainment Corp. for $13.25 a share, or about $850 million, to form the second largest U. S. video store chain.
The combined company will have about 2,500 stores in all 50 U. S. states, and $2.5 billion in yearly revenue, Dothan, Alabama based Movie Gallery said in a statement distributed by PR Newswire today. The offer is 1.5 percent higher than Hollywood Entertainment`s closing price of $13.05 on Jan. 7th.
Hollywood Entertainment`s purchase by Movie Gallery cancels earlier bids from Leonard Green & Partners LP, a Los Angeles buyout firm, and Blockbuster Inc., the largest U. S. video-store chain that threatened last month to make its $700 million offer hostile.
Movie Gallery shares fell 18 cents to $19.07 on Jan. 7 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. Hollywood Entertainment declined 7 cents to $13.05.
Hollywood will continue to operate stores under its name and will become a subsidiary of Movie Gallery, the statement said.
