Disney CEO Bob Iger has a lot on his plate these days. Since stepping down two years ago for his handpicked successor, Bob Chapek, he has returned to his post and weathered slumps at flagship Marvel and Lucasfilm divisions. The historic double whammy of the massive loss of Disney+’s streaming plans and the collapse of Hollywood. Reduce production. That’s before you get into old-school linear TV, which had just suffered through negotiations with Charter Communications and seen the unthinkable happen: Tens of millions of ABC and ESPN customers were blacked out (the deal closed in time for the first Monday Night Football) night broadcast).
In recent months, he mused aloud to CNBC in July that linear TV “Maybe not the core” for the future of the company. Now the other shoe may drop because Bloomberg According to reports, Iger has made a $10 billion acquisition offer to ABC, one of the traditional “big three” television networks, and the bidder is Byron Allen, the American One of the most famous black businessmen and a true media mogul. While it’s still early in any potential sale process, Allen’s ownership of ABC would cap a remarkable career in media acquisitions.
Earlier this week, Bloomberg It was also reported that Disney has been in talks to sell ABC and its local affiliates to Nexstar Media Group, which owns about 200 local TV stations across the country.disney Make a public statement Confirmed it is considering options but has not yet made a “decision” on the future of ABC or other assets.
The current offer isn’t Allen’s first time dealing with Disney. In 2019, he became an equity partner in a company formed when Sinclair Broadcast Group was formed Acquired approximately 20 regional sports networks Disney acquired it for $10.6 billion.
Allen’s offer reportedly included eight local stations, National Geographic and FX cable channels, as well as ABC’s crown jewel. Allen Media Group, where Allen serves as chairman and CEO, estimates the channels’ combined revenue over the past 12 months was $1.25 billion, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. Bloomberg further reported that the final transaction price may change depending on whether their actual earnings are higher or lower than the expected $1.25 billion.
Here’s how Allen went from stand-up comedy to becoming a media mogul and poised to take over one of America’s most important television industries.
Prolific dealmaker
Completing the deal would limit Allen’s recent string of acquisitions, and he may have looked an unlikely tycoon when he arrived. first appearance johnny carson tonight show 1979 as an 18-year-old comedian (the youngest in the show’s history).
Allen transitioned from talent to executive in the early 1990s, eventually founding Allen Media Group (then known as Entertainment Studios) in 1993.The first show he produced was byron allen artist, He interviewed celebrities at various press conferences, laying the foundation for what would become a unique syndication model. Rather than charging networks a licensing fee for programming, he would make the programming available for free and then take a cut of the ad revenue on the back end.
Allen spent the next decade or so acquiring local stations and managing syndicated programming.interviews he gave PBS NewsHour In 2022, he said he relied on reinvesting any profits generated by the syndicate, as he told the public broadcaster that no bank would give him a loan in the company’s first 15 years and he often struggled to organize financing.
Things have been very different in recent years, with Byron embarking on a debt-driven acquisition spree, branching out into local news, digital media and a variety of different programming to build his syndication and production operations. Critics, including credit ratings firm Moody’s, have been wary of Allen’s habit of financing M&A deals with credit. According to Bloomberg, Moody’s wrote back in 2018 that “management’s financial policies allow for high leverage that is currently beyond our tolerance.”
Still, he was a prolific dealmaker. Perhaps his most high-profile acquisition came in 2018, when Allen Media Group-owned Entertainment Studios Acquisition of The Weather Channel $300 million.Another occurred in 2016, when Allen’s company acquired TheGrio, a popular media brand, primarily serves a black audience. In order to maintain an emphasis on Black-owned media companies, Allen purchased the Black News Channel in 2022, which he then immediately renamed TheGrio Television Network.
Over the past several years, Allen has worked to build Allen Media Group into one of the largest owners of local television stations in the United States. Between 2019 and 2020, he spent about $500 million to acquire two smaller holdings, TV station owners Bayou Broadcasting and USA Television, according to the company’s website.Allen this spring rekindle his long term interest Acquisition of Tegna, owner of approximately 70 local television channels.
However, his Dream to get Longtime BET, he said it should be black-owned. BET is currently owned by Paramount Universal. (It was created by another black media mogul, billionaire Robert Thompson, who also owned the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats franchise before selling it in 2010 to legendary player and North Carolina native Michael ·Jordan.)
Allen’s penchant for litigation
Allen has also made headlines for several high-profile lawsuits against Fortune 500 companies, in which he alleged racial discrimination.
In 2019, he sued McDonald’s for racial discrimination, claiming the company only spent 0.3% of advertising budget At Black-Owned Media Companies.He again raised his grievances against McDonald’s in June, when he filed a Additional $100 million in litigation Accused the company of “lying” when it pledged to increase black-owned media spending from 2% to 5% by 2024.
In 2015 and 2016, Allen sues Comcast and Charter Communications for $20 billion and $10 billion respectively for refusing to carry cable channels owned by his company, Entertainment Studios, because he is black. (Charter Communications recently had a dispute with Disney over the renewal of a distribution agreement.) The case relies on a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that allowed black Americans to enter into contracts in the same manner as whites. Allen claimed that his race was one of the factors in the two companies’ refusal to carry channels like Pets.Tv and Cars.Tv, noting that their competitors Dish Network and DirecTV did carry those channels. The lawsuit against Comcast went all the way to the Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled to send the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
“This is a very bad day for our country,” Allen told Yahoo Finance then. “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has made decisions that undermine the civil rights of millions of Americans.”
In June 2020, Comcast and Allen reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed amount and a carriage agreement for the entertainment studio’s various cable channels.A few months later, in February 2021, he will Reconciliation with the Charter as well as.
To hear Allen tell it, all of his previous moves and deals were in preparation for Allen Media Group’s current moment. “We haven’t started yet,” he said in the same PBS interview. “The first 20 and 30 years were the most difficult, just laying the foundation. Now we have laid the foundation – watching skyscrapers rise from the ground.”
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