Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal broke his silence after his bid to buy BET Media Group came up short.
O’Neal, rapper Curtis Jackson, better known as 50 Cent, and Tyler Perry were among a group that was looking to buy BET from current owner Paramount Global. However, Paramount was asking for $3 billion, and O’Neal’s group only made a $2 billion offer.
Both O’Neal and Jackson took to Instagram to share their reactions to the news.
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Jackson went on to say that it isn’t worth the $3 billion that Paramount was asking for.
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“Paramount Global has scrapped an auction of Black Entertainment Group as bids from prospective buyers including media mogul Tyler Perry were disappointing, sources told The Post,” the New York Post’s Josh Kosman and Alexandra Steigrad wrote.
It would have been interesting to see O’Neal become a part of the ownership group for BET, but it turns out that maintaining the majority ownership of BET was more valuable to Paramount.
“We made this decision because the benefits of maintaining a majority stake in BET Media Group creates more value for Paramount than any of the proposals we received,” a source close to Paramount said.
Perry, who is one of BET’s most influential and prolific creators, had believed that it was “meant to be” that he could put together a group to own BET.
“When this came up, I thought, ‘Wow, this is meant to be,’” Perry said.
However, it turns out that was not the case with the sale not going through to Perry. Paramount received another offer from Byron Allen, a comedian-turned-media mogul, that was worth roughly $3 billion, but it did not engage with him on that offer, according to the New York Post.
“Paramount did not want to sell BET to Byron Allen,” a source at the company said, pointing to Allen’s lack of committed financing.
While it’s certainly a disappointing result for O’Neal, Jackson and Perry, the group seems to be focused on its next move based on O’Neal’s and Jackson’s Instagram posts.
O’Neal, a four-time NBA champion, starred with the Lakers, Orlando Magic, Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers during his NBA career. He won three of his four titles with the Lakers, winning his fourth championship with the Heat in 2006.
He currently is an analyst for “Inside the NBA” on TNT.
