Byron Allen in US$30bn bid for Paramount

US media mogul and The Weather Channel owner Byron Allen has made a $30bn offer to acquire Paramount Global.

Byron Allen

The offer includes $14.3bn to buy all of the embattled company’s outstanding shares and around $15bn to settle its outstanding debt.

“Mr. Byron Allen did submit a bid on behalf of Allen Media Group and its strategic partners to purchase all of Paramount Global’s outstanding shares,” said a statement from Allen Media Group. “We believe this $30bn 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 has offered $28.58 each for the voting shares of Paramount, which is about a 50% premium on recent trading prices, and $21.53 for non-voting shares, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the offer.

Last month, Allen offered to buy BET Media Group, including the BET cable channel, BET Studios, BET+ and VH1, from Paramount for $3.5bn, following an earlier approach last year, and while there doesn’t appear to have been any movement on that front, the businessman has now set his sights on the whole empire.

Allen appears to be on the hunt for a major media acquisition, having also made a $10bn offer to buy ABC, FX and National Geographic from Disney in September 2023.

His Paramount Global bid comes amid months of circling interest from parties eyeing an acquisition, with David Ellison’s Skydance Entertainment having made a preliminary offer to acquire Shari Redstone’s stake in Paramount’s majority owner National Amusements, which has been listening to offers for its assets.

Apollo Global Management is also among those to have shown interest in Paramount, while Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Paramount chief Bob Bakish reportedly met up in New York City late last year to discuss a potential merger.

Paramount, like other media companies, has been struggling with the rise of streaming and the decline of linear profitability, as well as a soft ad market and two Hollywood strikes in more recent months.

Bakish confirmed last week that Paramount would be focusing more tightly than ever on “Hollywood hits” which he said had become clear are the company’s biggest draw. As a consequence, it will produce fewer local, international originals.

The company’s goal for the next 12 months is to drive earnings growth and profitability for its streaming services including Halo and Yellowstone SVOD Paramount+ and will lean even further into large markets like the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, where it sees the greatest revenue potential.

More lay-offs are on the way at as a result of all this change, following other recent cuts including 120 exits as the company integrated the Showtime and Paramount+ brands, cutbacks at the Smithsonian Channel and the merging of the Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios teams.

Among the most recent exits was Maria Kyriacou, who stepped down from the company after four years as president of broadcast & studios, as the US studio shifts its strategy towards US content rather than international fare.