Two weeks ago it was reported that media mogul Byron Allen submitted a $10 billion bid to purchase ABC [click here if you missed that].
Now Byron admits Disney is not quite ready to sell...
From Deadline
Media entrepreneur Byron Allen, one of many parties interested in acquiring ABC and other linear TV assets from Disney, said he has “access to plenty of capital,” and Disney’s internal deliberations are the main factor preventing a formal sale process from starting.
“Capital’s not an issue,” he said of securing financial backing for his $10 billion bid. “I have access to plenty of capital. … There’s trillions of dollars out there looking for a safe place to invest and get it back with a return.”
Allen provided the update during a sit-down at the Code Conference with CNBC correspondent Julia Boorstin. When she asked Allen if he had a specific plan for how the bid would be financed, he replied, “Oh, absolutely,” without going into any details.
Inside Disney, however, there are also complications, Allen noted. CEO Bob Iger, despite his public observations last summer that linear TV “may not be core” to the company, “is not ready” yet to enter a formal process, according to Allen. Former Disney vets Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, who now run Candle Media, were also name-checked by Allen as the key advisors helping Iger sort out all options. Linear TV, of course, is not the only challenge in front of the company, which is also navigating Hulu buy-out talks with Comcast and charting the streaming future of ESPN.
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