Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of the Allen Media Group, speaks in the course of the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 2, 2022.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
Byron Allen, the media mogul offering $14 billion for Paramount Global, told CNBC on Wednesday that he has the cash to finance a deal, despite skepticism around his deal-making.
“We’ve good enough capital available to us. The actual challenge is certainty of close,” Allen said.
“This deal lives or dies on the [Federal Communications Commission],” he added.
Allen, the founder and CEO of a media group that owns dozens of television networks across the U.S., offered $30 billion for all of Paramount’s outstanding shares, including debt and equity.
The Allen Media Group said in a press release the offer “is the most effective solution for the entire Paramount Global shareholders, and the bid ought to be taken seriously and pursued.”
Allen has an extended history of constructing offers on major media assets. But bidding doesn’t suggest buying.
His recent media buyout offers have did not materialize into sales. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Allen last 12 months offered $18.5 billion for Paramount, and was rejected.
Allen told CNBC he hasn’t received a response from Paramount to his most up-to-date offer.
Shari Redstone, who controls Paramount through her company National Amusements, has been open to deal-making in recent months in an effort to either merge or sell the corporate that is home to brands resembling CBS, Showtime, Nickelodeon and its namesake movie studio.
CNBC reported last week that David Ellison’s Skydance Media and its backers were exploring a deal to take Paramount Pictures or all the media company private.
In December, CNBC also reported Paramount had entered preliminary talks with Warner Bros. Discovery to merge the 2 media giants in a deal that would have faced regulatory hurdles.
Allen’s bid for Paramount is essentially the most ambitious of the deals the media mogul has tried to finish. Listed below are a few of his recent deal attempts:
- In December, Allen renewed an try and buy Paramount-owned Black Entertainment Television and VH1 for a combined $3.5 billion.
- In November, Bloomberg reported, he was weighing a bid to purchase television stations from E.W. Scripps.
- In September, Allen made a suggestion to purchase ABC and several other other networks from Disney for $10 billion after Disney CEO Bob Iger opened the door to selling the corporate’s linear TV assets.
- In 2022, he explored a bid to purchase the National Football League’s Washington Commanders.
- In March 2020, he offered $8.5 billion to purchase television stations owner Tegna.
Allen told CNBC via phone Wednesday that he lost out on several deals because ownership modified course on wanting to sell. He highlighted his acquisition of The Weather Channel in 2018 for a reported $300 million and broadly defended his track record, invoking baseball Hall of Famer Babe Ruth.
“Let’s speak about Babe Ruth. Does he go down as one in all the best baseball players of all time? And he struck out half the time,” Allen said. Truly, Ruth struck out 1,300 times in 8,399 at bats — a 15% strikeout rate.
Allen’s bids for linear TV assets come because the media landscape shifts away from traditional TV toward streaming. Just about all the most important media corporations have launched services to compete with streaming giant Netflix.
Paramount reported in its third-quarter earnings report that its streaming platform, Paramount+, increased its subscriber count to 63 million. Nevertheless, Paramount’s direct-to-consumer products have did not turn a profit like Netflix has. The division reported adjusted losses of $238 million for the third quarter.
Paramount will release its fourth-quarter earnings Feb. 28.
Allen told CNBC he desires to buy Paramount for its linear networks, what he says is essentially the most difficult a part of the corporate.
“These are still great businesses for those who know how one can manage them properly,” Allen said.
Shares of Paramount were up almost 7% Wednesday and have risen greater than 35% previously three months as talks of a deal have ramped up. Nevertheless, the stock is greater than 40% off its 52-week high of $25.93 a share reached in February 2023.
— CNBC’s Alex Sherman and Julia Boorstin contributed to this report.
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