[3] In 1989, Kerkorian agreed to sell his MGM/UA interests to Australian broadcasting company Qintex[6][10] after they tendered an offer of $1.5 billion to beat out Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which had earlier acquired 20th Century Fox in 1985.

[14][15] Parretti gained interest from Time Warner chairman Steve Ross; the company forwarded $125 million to the MGM/UA purchase in exchange for exclusive home video distribution rights to the studio's product.

[17] In March 1991, MGM clients took a complaint to Los Angeles lawyer Stephen Chrystie, claiming that they were owed money ($18 million total) that the studio refused to pay.

[8] Parretti intended to sell off the James Bond's films distribution rights of the studio's catalogue so he could collect advance payments to finance the buyout.

[19] Ladd, a former President of MGM/UA, was then brought on board as CEO of MGM in April 1991,[2][20] and James Kanter as chief operating officer.

[8] When it became apparent that Parretti was making plans to regain MGM, Crédit Lyonnais seized control of the studio on June 17, 1991.

[25] On the verge of bankruptcy and failure, Crédit Lyonnais foreclosed in 1992,[26] assigned control of MGM-Pathé to a subsidiary,[6] and changed its name back to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

[2] The company remained under control of Crédit Lyonnais Bank until 1996, when it was repurchased by an investment group led by Kirk Kerkorian,[4] who in 1997 also purchased Orion Pictures, thus obtaining rights to 1,900 film titles and 3,000 television episodes and bringing the MGM film archives to more than 5,000 titles at that time.