September 15^th, 2004 (12:00am) - It was announced today that Sony Corporation of America, in conjunction with Comcast and other investors, will be buying out Hollywood behemoth MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) for an estimated $4.8 billion.

This move will help to bolster support of Sony’s UMD format being used in the PSP, which many analysts felt non-Sony companies would shrug off for multimedia (movies, music ect.). It’s now possible that classic movies like Gone With The Wind and the Wizard Of Oz will end up on a UMD disc. This move might also improve how investors see the UMD format and increase support as well.

However the most benificial part of this move for Sony might be the licences involved. James Bond and Rocky are both MGM properties. While EA and Ubisoft own the rights respectively, popular theory right now is that Sony will incorporate them into their own library of exclusive titles.