Byron Allen is a billionaire TV mogul who owns ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX network affiliate broadcast TV stations through his media and entertainment company. He also owns 24-hour HD TV networks and various streaming platforms, like The Weather Channel, HBCU Go, Sports.TV., ComedyTV and Local Now.
The media mogul is looking to expand his business portfolio with a massive bid to acquire BET Media Group from Paramount Global. The founder and CEO of Allen Media Group has reportedly emailed Paramount Global senior executives and board, offering $3.5 billion for BET Media Group, according to Variety.
“You are pursuing an inside sale at a below-market price with management that will not yield the highest price for the stockholders,” he said in the email, according to Variety. “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.”
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The platform added that the current offer is an upgrade from the $2.7 billion that Allen had offered earlier in 2023. Meanwhile, Variety reported that other buyers of BET Media Group include BET CEO Scott Mills, a 26-year veteran of the company, and Chinh Chu, a former executive at private equity firm Blackstone.
Early this year, Allen was among some black figures who were interested in acquiring BET. The others included Tyler Perry and P.Diddy. Paramount had looked at selling a majority stake in BET Media Group but canceled the bidding process because “a sale wouldn’t result in any meaningful deleveraging of its balance sheet,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Allen’s renewed offer comes on the back of a report that Paramount is currently in talks to sell BET to a management-led investor group.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time the comedian-turned-business mogul has made a bid to acquire a giant media network. In 2021, Face2Face Africa reported that he made an $8 billion bid for the acquisition of TEGNA, the media company with 64 stations in 51 markets across the U.S.
In 2018, his Entertainment Studios became the owners of The Weather Channel. The deal involved Allen gaining the channel via his company Allen Media LLC from Comcast Corporation and private-equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Bain Capital for $300 million.
Allen started Entertainment Studios in 1993 in his home. Since then, he’s opened offices in Chicago, Denver, Raleigh, North Carolina and Los Angeles. Some of the networks that Allen owns are Pets.TV, Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV and Cars. TV. Allen’s acquisition of multiple media platforms has made him one of the richest Black Americans.
He recently made history as the first African American to spend the most money on a home in the United States. The previous record was held by Beyonce and Jay-Z, who bought an $88 million compound in Bel-Air in 2017.
The 62-year-old reportedly paid $100 million for a 10,698-square-foot home that sits on 3.6 acres above the beach and boasts eight bedrooms and 12 bathrooms.
