*Byron Allen, founder and CEO of Allen Media Group, is trying to acquire Paramount Global’s BET Media Group again.
The media mogul is offering $3.5 billion to take over the entity, Variety reports.
Earlier this year, he bid $2.7 billion when Paramount Global announced in March that it was exploring the sale of BET. At the time, bidders included Tyler Perry and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
In August, however, Paramount Global backed away from the plan, saying the sale would not generate enough profits.
“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 from Paramount reportedly told the New York Post, according to Vibe.
During a Bloomberg Equality Summit in Atlanta, Perry said he was “disappointed’ with how Paramount handled the process.
“I was disappointed about it for a number of reasons,” Perry said, as reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The way it happened was disrespectful in a lot of ways.”
On Tuesday, Allen offered $3.5 billion for BET Media Group, which includes the BET cable channel, VH1, BET Studios, and streaming service BET+.
Per Variety, in the email to Paramount executives, Allen wrote, “You are pursuing an inside sale at a below-market price with management that will not yield the highest price for the stockholders. We believe it would be an egregious breach of fiduciary duty by the Paramount Global management team and board of directors if BET is sold for anything less than the highest price, particularly, in order to provide a sweetheart deal to an insider at the expense of public shareholders.”
BET was founded by Robert Johnson in 1980 and was acquired by Viacom in 2001 in a deal worth $3 billion.
“Don’t try to get me to pay for something that’s not worth anywhere near the value,” said Perry during the Bloomberg summit about Paramount’s initial offer to purchase BET.
When asked if he would reconsider if Paramount offered BET again, Perry replied, “No.”
Perry is a longtime partner with BET, which airs many of his shows.
READ MORE: Tyler Perry Addresses ‘Disrespectful’ Bidding Process for Paramount’s BET
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