By Ron Wynn
NASHVILLE, TN — Media mogul Byron Allen has resumed his bid to gain control of the various BET networks. He extended a $3.5 billion offer via email Tuesday to Paramount Global senior executives and board. Allen is the founder and CEO of the Allen Media Group. The BET Media Group includes the BET cable channel, VH1, BET Studios and streaming service BET+. The story was confirmed by multiple media outlets, among them Variety and Deadline. Allen has increased his bid from the $2.7 billion he had offered earlier this year.
There was no comment regarding the bid by representatives from Paramount Global and Allen Media Group declined to comment. Bloomberg first reported on Allen’s renewed offer for BET. According to their story, other potential buyers include BET CEO Scott Mills, a 26-year veteran of the company, and Chinh Chu, a former executive at private-equity firm Blackstone executive who runs CC Capital Partners. In the email to Paramount brass, Allen wrote, “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.”
A deal for BET Media Group would dramatically expand Allen’s media empire. Allen Media Group, which encompasses Entertainment Studios (founded 30 years ago as CF Entertainment), owns 12 cable networks, including the Weather Channel, JusticeCentral.TV, Cars.TV and Pets.TV, a theatrical movie distribution company and a stable of 28 broadcast stations affiliated with the Big Four broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC). Allen Media Group also produces, distributes, and sells advertising for 73 television shows, making it one of the largest independent producers/distributors of first-run syndicated TV programming for broadcast stations. The company has nearly 2,300 employees.
In September, Allen publicly announced a $10 billion offer for ABC, eight local TV stations as well as FX and National Geographic Channel, which are also Disney-owned properties. Disney CEO Bob Iger has since said the company’s linear networks are “not for sale.” BET was founded by Robert L. Johnson in 1980. It has been a major outlet for programming aimed at Black audiences since its inception. Johnson sold the cable channel to Viacom in 2001 for $3 billion.
Allen has repeatedly said publicly over the last year that BET should be a Black-owned property. He and Tyler Perry were among those who were disenchanted with how Paramount handled their previous bids for the BET Networks. Paramount claimed that the offers weren’t high enough, which is probably the reason that Allen has now increased his bid. Perry told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the sale talks collapsed that he wasn’t happy with the Paramount process and decision. “I was disappointed about it for a number of reasons. The way it happened was disrespectful in a lot of ways,” Perry said.
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