AME’s Founder Withdraws Bid to Buy Firm

AME Inc., a leading provider of post-production services for movie and television studios, said Friday that its founder and chairman, Andrew M. McIntyre, dropped his bid to acquire the company for $37 million.

McIntyre pulled the offer because he was unable to get financing “on satisfactory terms,” AME said. The Burbank concern did not elaborate on the financing question, and McIntyre was not available to comment.

McIntyre, who already owns 45% of AME, launched his bid last November by offering $11.50 a share for the remaining stock. After that offer was rejected by a committee of outside AME directors, McIntyre sweetened the bid to $13.75 a share in December, and the new offer was tentatively accepted by AME.

But McIntyre’s decision to withdraw the bid sent AME’s stock into a tailspin Friday. The stock closed at $9.50 a share, down $1.75, in national over-the-counter trading.

A takeover of AME remains a possibility nonetheless. AME reiterated a previous disclosure that AME’s employee stock ownership plan, which owns 25% of AME’s stock, also remains interested in possibly offering to buy the company.

In addition, a third party, which AME has not identified, is considering whether to make a bid, AME said. But neither the third party nor the ESOP has yet obtained necessary financing, the company added.

McIntyre, 44, started AME in 1980 and took the company public in April, 1987, at an initial offering price of $13.50 a share. The stock has never climbed above $13.75 a share since then.

AME specializes in taking movies and TV shows, which are usually shot on film, and transferring them to a master videotape. This enables them to be copied and distributed for syndication to broadcast or cable TV, or sold to the videocassette industry. AME also provides computer animation, graphics and audio post-production services.

Earlier this week, AME said its fiscal first-quarter profit plunged 93% from a year earlier, to $90,000 from $1.25 million, despite a 46% jump in revenue to $15.9 million from $10.9 million.

AME blamed the earnings drop on several factors, including costs related to McIntyre’s bid and the “lingering effects” of last summer’s 154-day writers strike against movie and TV producers.