GOZON:GMA IS NOT FOR SALE! WE'RE ENTERTAINING SUITORS!

The ongoing negotiations between GMA7 and tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan, chair of TV5, will not be consummated until the two parties move in the same direction toward a sale, GMA Network Inc. chairman and chief executive officer Atty. Felipe Gozon said Tuesday. Pangilinan has been trying to buy GMA7.

“It takes two to tango… and unless we move in the same direction, I will not know. It might be we’re moving in one way and they’re moving in another,” Gozon told reporters during a press conference at the GMA Network’s headquarters in Quezon City.
 

“In a transaction as big as this and as complicated as this, there will be issues,” Gozon noted. “Let me just say that the issues have not been resolved yet, not all of them.”

However, GMA’s chief executive said negotiations are ongoing, citing an exchange of emails between him and Pangilinan, while their respective groups were also communicating with each other.

Gozon said he is taking the cue from Panglinan.

During a briefing on the financial results of conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) which he heads, Pangilinan has said he will not comment any further on the deal.

GMA and the Pangilinan group will issue a joint statement once the transaction comes to a close, Gozon said .

Gozon noted any deal, if it would be reached at all, must be made before the end of 2012. “If nothing happens by December, I think Mr. Pangilinan agrees with me, there will be no more deal,” he said.

Gozon went on to say that the company is only responding to offers. “We don’t go out there in the market [to] sell GMA. The suitors are the ones who want to buy GMA, and we are just responding,” he said.

GMA Network Tuesday reported strong financials for the second quarter of 2012, owing to improved advertiser confidence and sound financial management. — VS, GMA News

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