Paramount Global
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Byron Allen is expressing his interest in buying BET again to Paramount, this time raising his bid to $3.5 billion.
According to Variety, on Wednesday (Dec. 20), the media mogul Byron Allen emailed the senior executives of Paramount Global to voice his interest in acquiring the BET Media Group. The media group comprises the BET cable network, VH1, streaming service BET+, and BET Media Studios. The bid submitted on behalf of the Allen Media Group is $3.5 billion, a substantial increase from Allen’s previous bid of $2.7 billion in March.
“You are pursuing an inside sale at a below-market price with management that will not yield the highest price for the stockholders,” the email reportedly read. “We believe it would be an egregious breach of fiduciary duty by the Paramount Global management team and board of directors if BET is sold for anything less than the highest price, particularly, in order to provide a sweetheart deal to an insider at the expense of public shareholders.” Representatives at both Paramount Global and the Allen Media Group declined to comment when contacted by the press.
Allen already has competition in this latest bid, as word has it that Chinh Chu, a former Blackstone executive and head of CC Partners along with BET CEO Scott Mills have submitted their own reported bids of $2 billion. When Paramount Global first floated the prospect of BET being for sale in March, other interested parties included Sean “Diddy” Combs, Shaquille O’Neal, 50 Cent, and Tyler Perry. Paramount halted that process in August, stating that “a sale wouldn’t result in any meaningful deleveraging of its balance sheet.”
Byron Allen has made his media group a formidable independent player in the media industry, with 28 broadcast stations affiliated with the Big Four networks of ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox as well as ownership of The Weather Channel in addition to 11 other cable networks. News of the offer surfaced as word broke out that the CEO of Paramount Global met with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to begin talks about the two media giants merging. The news sent shockwaves throughout the public, as it would mark another major consolidation in the last three years.
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Just when it seemed like BET Media Group was going to pull a major move and purchase a majority stake in Paramount Global, the deal has fallen apart with Paramount deciding to back away from the proposed deal.
According to Variety, the deal that would’ve led to BET owning VH1, BET Studios, and streamer BET+ came to an end Wednesday (Aug. 16) after Paramount Global came to the realization that the sale “wouldn’t result in any meaningful deleveraging of its balance sheet.” With bids up in the $2 billion to $3 billion dollar range, we’re surprised Paramount Global would walk away from such a Godzilla sized bag, but hey, it’s their company and their choice.
Variety reports:
Variety exclusively reported in March that Sean “Diddy” Combs was among the bidders who expressed interested in the majority stake, joining fellow media moguls Tyler Perry and Byron Allen in pursuing the acquisition of the network.
Combs has previously worked with Paramount Global, producing three iterations of MTV’s “Making the Band” between 2002 and 2009. The rapper, record producer and executive is already the owner of network Revolt, which reaches roughly 80 millions households. Back in March, a source close to Combs told Variety that Combs is “exploring the opportunity to purchase BET as a part of his strategy to build a Black-owned global media powerhouse,” which he believes is “better for the business, for the culture and for building wealth in the Black community.”
It really would’ve been interesting to see what Diddy would’ve had in mind had Paramount Global ended up in his hands. Had Tyler Perry taken control, we probably would’ve seen Madea get her own daytime talk show or something. We wouldn’t be mad at such a show either. Just sayin’.
What Paramount Global has in store for it’s future now is anyone’s guess, but don’t be surprised if they end up suddenly selling the majority stake of their company to Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk or something. That’s just how the game goes sometimes.
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Paramount Global, the powerful conglomerate that oversees several major media networks, has decided to end its auction of a majority stake in one of its most notable properties. BET is no longer on the block, which reportedly caused Paramount to suffer a hit to its stock price.
According to a report from Deadline, shares for Paramount Global dropped 2 percent on Thursday (August 17) following news from yesterday that the company is no longer looking to sell a majority stake in BET, which stands for Black Entertainment Television.
More from Deadline:
A source familiar with the discussions told Deadline that Paramount informed bidders for a stake in BET that the process had been halted because the company concluded it wouldn’t create enough value or result in a meaningful reduction of debt. The company has been looking for opportunities to streamline, and just last week announced the sale of book publishing unit Simon & Schuster to KKR for $1.62 billion.
Among the rumored players vying to purchase the BET stake, Tyler Perry, who has a deal with the network, Sean “Diddy” Combs, and Byron Allen were all considered frontrunners for the purchase. What this means for BET going forward isn’t known, nor can it be confirmed that further efforts for the sale won’t resurface.
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