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For those who were looking to find out who would buy the majority stake in BET, we have your answer: Nobody.
That’s because Paramount Global has decided that the sale is off.
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As reported by Wall Street Journal and The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount has ended the 5-month bidding war for BET Media Group, which includes the BET channel, streamer BET+, BET Studios and VH1 Studios.
The decision follows expressed interests from moguls Tyler Perry, Byron Allen, Sean “Diddy” Combs and others to acquire the majority stake.
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CEO Bob Bakish was asked about the potential sale during Paramount’s recent earnings call. Not addressing BET by name, he said, “We’re always looking for ways to maximize shareholder value. And as we said before, that might involve divesting, acquiring or potentially partnering on assets, all of which we’ve done. But other than that, I’m not going to comment on anything specifically.”
Paramount Global, formerly named Viacom, bought BET in 2000 for $2.3 billion in stock and $570 million in debt.
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For the past few years, Paramount was looking into slimming down assets to boost streaming and burnish its core entertainment portfolio (including Paramount Pictures, CBS, BET, MTV, and streamers Paramount + & Pluto TV). While Paramount+ did go up to 61 million subscribers globally, the streaming division tallied $424 million in losses in its 2nd quarter.
Paramount Global No Longer Selling BET Majority Stake was originally published on foxync.com
