According to a report from Deadline, Byron Allen is bidding $3.5 billion to acquire BET Media Group. It appears that Paramount Global is in talks to sell BET to a management-led investor group, which prompted Allen to make another run at acquiring the media group. Previously, Paramount had received offers from Allen, Tyler Perry, and others, but they were not considered high enough, leading Paramount to take BET off the table.
During an event in Atlanta, Perry said that he wasn’t a fan of the process. “I was disappointed about it for a number of reasons. The way it happened was disrespectful in a lot of ways,” he said, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
It seems that Allen resubmitted his bid after hearing about the potential deal with BET CEO Scott Mills and Chinh Chu, who is a former Blackstone executive and runs CC Capital Partners. According to Bloomberg, the price tag for the deal could be just under $2 billion. Additionally, Par has also been reportedly in talks about a broader merger with Warner Bros Discovery.
BET Media is made up of several components, including the linear networks, BET+, BET Studios, and VH1, which was moved under the BET umbrella last year. BET Studios launched in 2021 with partners Kenya Barris, Rashida Jones, and Aaron Rashon Thomas. BET, which was originally founded by Robert Johnson in 1980, was the first cable channel to focus on Black audiences. Viacom acquired the company in 2001 in a deal worth $3 billion. There was some elation among the Black community regarding the asset's returning to a Black-owned media company.
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