Paramount Drops Plans to Sell BET

Earlier this year Paramount Pictures floated the idea of selling the BET network, drawing interest from Byron Allen, Kenya Barris, Sean Combs, Shaquille O'Neal, Tyler Perry and 50 Cent [click here if you missed that]. 

Now Paramount has pulled the plug on the sale...

From The Hollywood Reporter 

After at least five months of deliberations, Paramount Global has decided against selling a majority stake in its BET Media Group, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

During Paramount’s latest earnings call Aug. 7, CEO Bob Bakish was asked about the status of the potential sale and didn’t address BET by name, but replied: “We’re always looking for ways to maximize shareholder value. And as we said before, that might involve divesting, acquiring or potentially partnering on assets, all of which we’ve done. But other than that, I’m not going to comment on anything specifically.”

The company has owned BET since 2000, when the Sumner Redstone-led firm then named Viacom snapped up Black Entertainment Television for $2.3 billion in stock and $570 million in debt. At the time, the BET channel was carried in 62.4 million households domestically.