After putting itself up for sale back in November, MGM has been open to offers on its assets, but now a deadline of March 19 has been set for receiving bids; a possible sign that it may be close to working out a sale or a programme of restructure.

Over the last month, around six bidders – including, if insider reports are to be believed, Time Warner and Lionsgate – have been invited to get involved in a second round of bidding, with the studio opening up their books to these chosen few.

On January 29, MGM was given two further months of exemption from its debt payments, with money-lenders agreeing to a March 31 deadline for this agreement.

MGM received two more months of exemption from debt payments on Jan. 29 as lenders agreed to extend the “forbearance” period on interest payments on its debts until March 31. With a looming repayment of its $250 million credit line in April, and a further $1 billion payment on its $3.7 billion debt due in July 2011, it’s clearly in MGM’s best interests to get a deal in place soon.