GOZON DEMANDS THE SALE OF GMA-7 TO BE SEALED THIS YEAR OR ELSE NO MERGER WILL OCCUR!

The much-anticipated deal between rival networks TV5 and GMA-7 is in a make-or-break period.

According to GMA Network Chairman and CEO Felipe L. Gozon, the business deal with TV5 chair Manuel V. Pangilinan will either push through this 2012 or not at all. "It will either terminate or go through within this year," he said on Tuesday, July 31.

Gozon led the bell ringing ceremony at the Philippine Stock Exchange floor at the Ayala trading floor to mark the media network's 5th listing anniversary. In his speech to the exchange, he said GMA-7 "must prepare for new and better opportunities" ahead.

Pricing has long been a sticking point for the deal, but without elaborating Gozon suggested there were other details to iron out. "From [Pangilinan's] standpoint maybe that [the deal is moving positively] is correct. But from my standpoint, I am [on a] wait-and-see [mode]. As you know in any negotiation there are outstanding issues to resolved, because if there were not, then we would have signed yesterday."Gozon said that he and the families behind GMA were ready to continue running the company should the deal fall through.

"We are not peddling GMA for sale. Somebody wanted to buy and we attended to it. That's all. There is no plan B, no plan C, no plan D [if Pangilinan doesn't buy it]," said Gozon.

SOURCE