Shari Redstone has revised plans to sell parts of struggling media giant Paramount Global.
The company is reportedly in exclusive negotiations to sell the Black Entertainment Television Network to a group of buyers led by BET CEO Scott Mills after calling off an auction last year that failed to raise the roughly $3 billion it was seeking for the cable channel.
Now Mills and Manhattan-based private equity firm CC Capital, led by Chin Chu, have offered to buy the company for about $1.7 billion. Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.
The Post has reached out to Paramount and BET for comment.
“CC Capital’s policy is not to comment on these types of rumors,” a spokesman for the private equity firm told The Post on Tuesday.
This is Mills and Chu’s second attempt at cable networks in the past year, whose future is uncertain after parent company Paramount’s merger with David Ellison’s production company Skydance Media fell through.
Redstone, who controls Paramount through his family’s holding company National Amusements, called off the deal with Skydance last month because he felt the price was too low and because of the possibility of shareholder lawsuits.
On Monday, billionaire media mogul Barry Diller added to the Paramount saga by announcing he was exploring buying Redstone’s stake in NAI. The New York Times reported.
The surprising development comes ahead of next week’s Sun Valley Media Conference, which brings together many of the media giants.
Asked if Redstone was looking for a financial partner after turning down a $2.25 billion bid from Skydance for NAI, Diller laughed off the idea.
“It’s ridiculous. IAC has over $4 billion in cash and liquidity,” he told The Post on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Paramount, which owns entertainment businesses including CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon and Hollywood Studios, is again looking to sell BET.
Last December, Bloomberg reported that an investment group led by Mills and Chu was willing to pay just under $2 billion for BET.
Actor and director Tyler Perry, who has an investment in the BET+ streaming service, has also reportedly been in talks with Paramount about buying an ownership stake in the cable channel.
But, as The Washington Post previously reported, he balked at Paramount’s $3 billion price tag.
He said it was “disrespectful” for the company to ask for a sale price that was “completely unreasonable” for BET’s value.
Former stand-up comedian and current media mogul Byron Allen led a group of investors that offered $3.5 billion for BET and VH1.
Another potential suitor said to be interested in BET is rapper and businessman Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is being sued by a woman who claims he sexually assaulted her at a New York City recording studio in 2003.
Paramount Global finally announced it was selling a majority stake in the network last August.
BET was originally founded in 1980 by Robert Johnson and his then-wife Sheila Johnson.
Robert Johnson founded BET in the basement of his Washington, D.C., home after receiving a $500,000 loan from longtime cable TV executive John Malone, and eventually built the brand into the leading television network for black America.
In addition to acting as a publisher and event production company, Johnson expanded BET by building smaller digital networks aimed at jazz, gospel and hip-hop fans.
In the early 1990s, the network became the first black-owned television company to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
BET has seen its subscriber numbers and revenue decline over the past decade.
According to S&P Global, the number of cable TV subscribers is expected to fall from a peak of 89.5 million in 2014 to 66.3 million in 2022.
S&P said the cable networks’ annual profits have fallen to $188 million in 2022 from an estimated peak of $319 million in 2013.
The highlight of BET Media Group’s acquisition may have been BET+, which launched in 2019. BET says the streaming service has more than 3 million subscribers.
BET expanded its content after Johnson and his then-wife Sheila sold the company to Viacom for $3 billion in 2000, making him America’s first black billionaire.
He served as CEO until 2006.
With post wire
