LOS ANGELES (AP) – Sony Corp. and several financial partners have agreed in principle to acquire movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for about $2.94 billion in cash, sources familiar with the talks said Monday.

Sony and its partners have not yet signed a definitive agreement for MGM, which equals $12 a share in cash for each share of MGM and the assumption of about $1.9 billion in debt.

A final deal could come as early as Tuesday, after both company’s boards meet to approve the deal.

Both MGM and Sony declined comment Monday.

Eisner losing touch with Disney

LOS ANGELES (AP) – The leaders of the effort to oust Michael Eisner as chief executive of The Walt Disney Co. have called on the company’s board to reject Eisner’s offer to retire in 2006 as well as his pick of president Robert Iger as his successor.

Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold said Monday they will propose an alternate slate of directors if Disney’s board does not launch an immediate search for a new CEO and announce that Eisner will step down from the board at the conclusion of the search.

The two former board members said a new CEO should be in place before Disney’s next shareholder meeting in early 2005.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – Struggling New Jersey pharmaceuticals company Schering-Plough Corp. and German chemical and drug maker Bayer AG have formed an alliance under which Schering-Plough will take over U.S. marketing of Bayer’s primary care medicines.

The partnership, announced Monday, could give Bayer a bigger presence in the world’s biggest drug market, while offering Schering-Plough badly needed new products to sell and a potentially key marketing partner for some of its drugs in Europe and Japan.

Under the alliance, Kenilworth, N.J.-based Schering-Plough’s 3,500 sales people will take over U.S. marketing of Cipro and Avelox, both broad-spectrum antibiotics for respiratory and skin infections, plus the blood pressure drug Adalat and some small established primary care drugs. Schering-Plough’s sales force also will handle U.S. promotion of Bayer’s impotence treatment Levitra.

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CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) – Food conglomerate Campbell Soup Co. posted a 20 percent drop in fourth-quarter profits as the company began its latest restructuring effort.

The Camden, N.J.-based company on Monday reported net income of $59 million, or 14 cents per share, for the quarter that ended Aug. 1. Earnings for the sale period a year earlier were $74 million, or 18 cents per share.

Excluding one-time pretax charges of $32 million related to restructuring and a gain of $10 million from the sale of an idle plant, earnings per share were 17 cents. That was a penny below the expectation of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call and down a penny from the fourth quarter results of a year earlier.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – PayPal will start fining customers up to $500 for using the online payment service on gambling, pornography and illegal sales of prescription drugs.

Those payments are already prohibited under PayPal’s acceptable-use policy, but Sept. 24 marks the first time the eBay Inc.-owned company will fine customers for any violations. PayPal also said it could take legal action to recoup any costs not covered by fines.

PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires said Monday that the policy covers only people or companies selling barred products, though those attempting to pay for them could have their accounts curtailed or closed.