-133-
precisely what their interests were.94 It appears that Deyhle
Media Group and Capella Films had a substantial stake in that
proposed acquisition and, in fact, had initiated the dialogue
with Messrs. Lerner and Ackerman.
More importantly, beyond the testimonies of Messrs. Lerner
and Ackerman, we have no independent basis for determining the
precise roles that Messrs. Lerner and Ackerman played in the
Safari bid and what their motivations were. Petitioner claims
that he and Mr. Ackerman joined the Safari consortium to further
their long-range goals of building a substantial film library.
It is equally plausible, however, that Messrs. Lerner’s and
Ackerman’s roles in the Safari consortium were consistent with
the areas of their respective expertise: Mr. Lerner as a tax
expert and Mr. Ackerman as an expert in putting together
financing for film company acquisitions. In any event, one thing
is clear from the Ackerman group’s involvement in the MGM
transaction: At some point, the Ackerman group began eyeing the
substantial built-in tax losses that the Credit Lyonnais group
had in the MGM companies and began exploring the possible ways in
which it could exploit those built-in losses.
94 Petitioner listed Mark Seiler as a witness in his
pretrial memorandum; however, he did not call Mr. Seiler as a
witness at trial.
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