Seagram To Buy Mca From Japanese Firm

Seagram Co. has agreed to buy 80 percent of Hollywood studio operator MCA Inc. from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. for $5.7 billion, the Canadian distiller said Sunday.

Seagram said in a statement that Matsushita, the Japanese electronics giant, would keep the remaining 20 percent stake in MCA.

The deal had been expected following the announcement Thursday that Seagram had completed an agreement to sell most of its 24.2 percent stake in Du Pont Co. back to the chemical manufacturer for $8.8 billion.

Seagram’s agreement to purchase the stake in MCA was approved by both companies’ boards and signed by Yoichi Morishita, president of Matsushita, and Edgar Bronfman Jr., president of Seagram.

Matsushita bought MCA for $6.6 billion in 1990.