Byron Allen makes $14 billion offer for all of Paramount Global

Bloomberg | Media mogul Byron Allen has extended yet another multibillion-dollar takeover offer – this time, making a US$14.3 billion bid to buy all of the outstanding shares of Paramount Global.

Allen offered US$28.58 each for the voting shares of Paramount, a 50 percent premium to recent trading, and US$21.53 for the non-voting shares, according to people familiar with his terms, asking not be identified because they aren’t public. Including existing debt, the total value of the deal rises to about US$30 billion.

It’s unclear exactly how Allen would pay for a takeover. He has also tried to line up funding in recent months to make a bid for several television stations from broadcaster E.W. Scripps Co. and made a US$10 billion offer to Walt Disney Co. last year to buy its ABC TV network, local stations, as well as the FX and National Geographic cable channels.

The market showed its skepticism about the offer. Paramount’s non-voting shares jumped 22 percent in premarket trading on Wednesday to US$16.70, still well below the offer price.

His company, Allen Media Group, confirmed that he made an offer in a statement to Bloomberg News. Representatives for Paramount declined to comment.

“This US$30 billion offer, which includes debt and equity, is the best solution for all of the Paramount Global shareholders, and the bid should be taken seriously and pursued,” Allen’s company said in the statement.

Paramount – one of the crown jewels in a global media empire controlled by the Redstone family – would be a tough deal to complete. The company generated operating income before depreciation and amortization of US$1.87 billion in the first nine months of last year, a 30 percent decline from the year before. Sales, at US$22 billion, were flat. Allen would be borrowing at a time of much higher interest rates than some of his previous acquisitions.

Allen’s plan, according to the people, is to sell the Paramount film studio, real estate and some other intellectual property. He will keep the TV channels, including the Paramount+ streaming service, and run them on a more cost-efficient basis. He has banks and other investors lined up, the people said.

Paramount, the parent of CBS, Nickelodeon and other channels, has been in play for months after independent producer David Ellison began discussing a buyout of the Redstone family’s shares last year.

Allen sent his offer via text message and email to Paramount senior management and board members.

A stand-up comic who branched into producing TV shows, Allen has spent more than US$1 billion in recent years to acquire assets such as the Weather Channel and a string of local TV stations from Honolulu to Tucson. If he’s successful in his bid, he would roll his existing TV assets into the new company.

Allen has said he has a better chance of acquiring media assets than many because he’s already won regulatory approvals to own stations. His station group isn’t large enough to trigger limits on ownership, however.

Last year, Allen bid for Paramount’s BET and VHF channels, reiterating his US$3.5 billion offer just last month in an email to the board.

In September, he sent Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger a text with his US$10 billion offer for the ABC network and other channels. Iger, who had previously suggested he would considered offers, later said he didn’t want to sell.

Allen has unsuccessfully thrown his hat in the ring at other times to purchase properties ranging from TV station owner Tegna Inc. to the Denver Broncos football team.