Media mogul Tyler Perry refuses to cough up the $3 billion-plus that Paramount is asking in an auction of Black Entertainment Television — and the fierce haggling has begun to throw a sale into doubt, The Post has learned.
The “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” star has been considered the frontrunner to win the auction for BET Group, whose properties include cable channels BET and VH1 along with the BET+ streaming service.
But Perry is losing patience with the drawn-out process after making an offer that’s short of $3 billion — a price tag that other investors also consider to be lofty, according to a source close to the situation.
The filmmaker, who already owns a 25% stake in BET and BET+, has private equity backing for his offer, the insider added.
“He is used to getting his way and is frustrated,” the source said, adding that final bids are due by mid-July.
Perry could not be reached for comment.
Paramount Global bought BET for $2.7 billion in 2000 when the Shari Redstone-owned company was called Viacom. The company wants roughly 10 times the BET Group’s current $325 million in Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, sources said.
However, the continuing decline in cable’s popularity as more people cut the cord figures to be a drag on BET Group’s future earnings.
Paramount Global — which includes CBS, MTV, Paramount Pictures, the recently launched Paramount+ streaming service and book publisher Simon & Schuster — had $15.6 billion in long-term debt as of March, according to public findings.
“Paramount’s leverage now is six times Ebitda, so to make this work a sale needs to happen at eight times or more,” the first source said, since after accounting for taxes a sale at a lower multiple will not reduce its debt level.
“There is interest, but not at eight times [Ebitda].”
Paramount declined to comment.
The auction is being run by investment banks Seibert Williams and JPMorgan, sources close to the situation said.
There was an erroneous report by entertainment news site The Streamr last week that Perry had won the auction, leading to premature congratulations from Perry’s “Madea” co-star Keke Palmer.
Weather Channel owner Byron Allen is also in the hunt, according to an inside source.
Meanwhile, private equity firm CVC Capital Partners — which partnered with Group Black, a media company that teamed with celebrities including Rapper 50 Cent and NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal — is out of the process, leaving Group Black looking for a well-funded partner, two sources said.
Paramount Global is holding a separate auction for Simon & Schuster.
The WSJ reported last week that KKR and News Corp.’s HarperCollins were among the bidders for the book publisher, with those final bids also due in mid-July.
Paramount may sell The BET Group and Simon & Schuster around the same time to take the focus away from how much the properties are able to fetch, the source close to the situation said.
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