Lionsgate sues Carl Icahn

Just when it seemed as if the movie company and the billionaire shareholder were on the same page in Icahn's efforts to merge Lionsgate with MGM comes word of a lawsuit in NY federal court. Lionsgate accuses Icahn of using the merger proposal to buy up a larger slice of MGM's debt (and thus a bigger stake in the studio). All of which is significant because Icahn had been trying to take control of Lionsgate before being rebuffed. The suit was filed the day before a vote by MGM creditors on whether to bypass the Lionsgate deal in favor of a prepackaged bankruptcy plan. From The Wrap:

The big winner in the latest round of legal gamesmanship will likely be Spyglass chiefs Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, who under their own proposal, would be named MGM co-CEOs after the studio emerges from Chapter 11. Some debtholders had quietly indicated that Icahn's contentious relationship with Lionsgate and unresolved suits against the studio were leading them to favor a Spyglass takeover rather than a merger with Lionsgate.