Back to Work?

It took nearly two weeks to count and untangle the votes in the spirited proxy fight for control of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. When the results were finally ready last week, Chief Stockholder Philip Levin, the man who wanted to take over, wound up the loser. President Robert O'Brien's management team received 58% of the stockholders' votes, a victory margin of 690,000. Mindful that the internecine battle had occupied MGM for months (TIME, March 3), the new board of directors (with Levin no longer a member) promptly re-elected O'Brien, who allowed that it was high time the company "got back to work."

But Levin, always persistent, was not about to give up the fight. Even before the outcome was officially announced, the millionaire New Jersey real estate developer challenged some 800,000 votes and filed suit in Delaware's Federal District Court, asking that the stockholders' vote be set aside. Since that was just one of ten lawsuits triggered by the marathon power struggle, the fight was expected to continue indefinitely.

Levin's dissident forces, anticipating another showdown, will probably try to increase their MGM stockholdings. For his part, O'Brien is expected to issue new shares to be used for unspecified acquisition, a move that would dilute the 11% block that Levin now holds. Levin, meanwhile, has no choice but to live with the myriad management policies of which he disapproves--everything from the company's basic approach to filmmaking to the new, stylized version of its longstanding Leo the Lion symbol.

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