Tyler Perry has submitted a final takeover bid for Black Entertainment Television Group — but it falls a whopping $1 billion short of the $3 billion that owner Paramount Global has been asking, The Post has learned.
The “Madea” creator has offered $2 billion for BET Group — whose properties include cable channels BET and VH1 along with the BET+ streaming service — to meet Paramount’s final bidding deadline last week, according to insiders.
“I’ve heard he is at two or under two,” a source close to the situation told The Post.
The underwhelming bid from frontrunner Perry — who already owns a 25% stake in BET+ and has private equity backing for his offer — further raises doubts as to whether BET will get sold at all.
That’s despite the fact that Paramount is desperate to unload BET along with other legacy assets including the Simon & Schuster publishing house, according to sources briefed on the negotiations.
On one hand, Perry’s lowball offer leaves the door open for another suitor, the comedian-turned-media-mogul Byron Allen, who put in a bid of roughly $2.7 billion, according to one source close to the auction.
Nevertheless, it’s not clear whether Allen — who has amassed a media empire that includes the Weather Channel — currently has enough financing to complete the deal, multiple sources said.
Paramount’s asking price amounts to roughly 10 times the BET Group’s current $325 million in Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, sources said.
But BET Group’s future profits are at risk as cord-cutting continues to hammer the ranks of US cable subscribers.
Paramount wanted to see committed financing when final bids came in July 19, sources said.
Paramount boss Shari Redstone — whose father Sumner Redstone paid $2.7 billion for BET in 2000 when the media empire still operated under the Viacom banner — is expected to decide whether to accept or reject the lowball offers in the coming days.
“This is a dysfunctional company. Nothing they do surprises me,” a source close to the process said.
Perry, Allen and Paramount did not return calls for comment.
Paramount’s other properties include CBS, MTV, Paramount Pictures, the recently launched Paramount+ streaming service and book publisher Simon & Schuster, which reportedly has attracted interest from KKR and News Corp’s HarperCollins.
Perry has a $150 million per year deal to provide content for BET that expires in 2024. Sources said he could look for a more lucrative deal from a streamer like Netflix next year when his contract expires instead of buying BET.
Those who are considering financing a BET buyout said they have gotten past initial concerns that Perry might stop programming shows for BET if he does not buy the network, a lender close to the process said.
That’s because banks have reached the conclusion that younger, cheaper talent might make more sense for BET than paying Perry $150 million a year.
“Tyler is being overpaid for his content,” the lender said. “There are many people who want to produce for BET and would do it for less.”
Perry also has some series contracts that go beyond 2024 and BET can air programming he has already produced after he is gone.
A sale to one of the prominent black bidders would allow either one to attract more money from advertisers who allocate part of their budget to minority-owned broadcasters, a source said.
Despite BET’s target audience being mainly African-Americans, it does not count as a minority-owned business since Redstone controls Paramount, the source added.
The auction is being run by investment banks Seibert Williams and JPMorgan, sources close to the situation said.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
