Media Mogul Byron Allen Makes $10 Billion Offer for ABC, FX, NatGeo (Report)
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Comedian and media mogul Byron Allen has reportedly made a $10 billion offer to the Walt Disney Company to acquire ABC and local ABC affiliate stations, as well as Disney-owned cable networks FX and National Geographic.
Word from Bloomberg, which came late Thursday night, follows earlier reports of “exploratory talks” about selling ABC and ABC stations to Nexstar Media Group, which previously acquired a majority stake in The CW.
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Allen, the CEO of Allen Media Group and Entertainment Studios, already owns 10 television networks — most notably TheGrio and The Weather Channel. Earlier this year, Allen was among those who expressed interest in acquiring BET, before Paramount Global decided against selling a majority stake in the network.
In July, Disney CEO Bob Iger raised eyebrows by saying that the linear TV business “may not be core” to the company’s future. But in a statement cited by our sister site Deadline, a Disney spokesperson said of the ABC/Nexstar rumor, “The Walt Disney Company has made no decision with respect to the divestiture of ABC or any other property,” and maintained that “any report to that effect is unfounded.”
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Iger appeared to slap an expiration date on both ABC and ESPN, when on July 13 he said at an industry bigwigs shindig that “we have to be open-minded and strategic about the future of those businesses. They may not be core to Disney.
“The creativity and content they create is core to Disney,” he stressed, “but the distribution model, the business model that forms the underpinning of that business, and that has delivered great profits over the years, is definitely broken.”
Bloomberg’s report on the alleged ABC/Nexstar talks said that, according to people familiar with the situation, the discussions were “preliminary,” and that Nexstar would only be interested if “at the right price.” Allen’s offer was also said to be “preliminary” and based on “the assumption that the properties generated $1.25 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization over the past 12 months.”
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