Renowned media magnate Byron Allen has made a fresh bid to acquire BET Media Group from Paramount Global, extending an offer amounting to $3.5 billion.
Sources familiar with the situation confirmed that on Tuesday, Allen, the founder and CEO of Allen Media Group, approached senior executives and the board of Paramount Global via email, proposing the acquisition of BET Media Group. This media conglomerate encompasses the BET cable channel, VH1, BET Studios, and the streaming service BET+. This escalated bid, increased from Allen’s prior offer of $2.7 billion earlier in 2023, represents a substantial endeavor to secure ownership of these prominent media entities.
Both Paramount Global and Allen Media Group declined to provide comments on the matter. The news of Allen’s renewed bid for BET was initially reported by Bloomberg. Among other potential buyers of BET Media Group are BET CEO Scott Mills, a stalwart with 26 years of experience at the company, and Chinh Chu, a former executive at Blackstone and current head of CC Capital Partners. Reports suggest they have explored an acquisition with a price tag falling below $2 billion, as per Bloomberg’s sources.
In the email dispatched to Paramount leadership, Allen emphasized, “You are pursuing an inside sale at a below-market price with management that will not yield the highest price for the stockholders. 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.”
Earlier this year, Paramount Global had initiated discussions regarding the sale of a majority stake in BET Media Group, attracting interest from potential buyers including Allen, Tyler Perry, and Sean “Diddy” Combs. However, in August, Paramount ceased the bidding process for BET, citing that “a sale wouldn’t result in any meaningful deleveraging of its balance sheet,” as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The resurgence of interest in a potential deal for BET arrives amidst ongoing discussions between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global about a prospective merger. Concurrently, Shari Redstone, whose National Amusements holds a controlling stake in Paramount Global, has been reportedly negotiating the sale of her shares in NAI, according to multiple reports.
Should the acquisition materialize, it would substantially expand Allen’s media empire. Presently, Allen Media Group encompasses 12 cable networks, including the Weather Channel, JusticeCentral.TV, Cars.TV, and Pets.TV. Additionally, the group manages a theatrical movie distribution company and a portfolio of 28 broadcast stations affiliated with major networks ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. With a workforce of nearly 2,300 employees, Allen Media Group also boasts the production, distribution, and advertising sales for 73 television shows, establishing itself as one of the leading independent producers/distributors of first-run syndicated TV programming for broadcast stations.
In September, Allen publicly announced a staggering $10 billion bid for ABC, eight local TV stations, as well as FX and National Geographic Channel, all properties owned by Disney. However, Disney CEO Bob Iger has explicitly stated that the company’s linear networks are “not for sale.”
Established in 1980 by Robert L. Johnson, BET has been a pivotal platform for programming tailored to Black audiences since its inception. Johnson sold the cable channel to Viacom in 2001 for $3 billion, marking a significant chapter in the channel’s trajectory.
