50 Cent is interested in purchasing BET and has reportedly teamed up with Shaq and BET Studios minority stake holder Kenya Barris to bid for the network
TMZ reports the Get Rich Or Die Tryin rap icon and Barris were at the paramount offices this week to discuss the possibility of buying the network and sources with direct knowledge of the situation say “they’re deep in it.”
The trio are reportedly ready to make an offer and will be aided in their bid by investment company CVC.
Earlier this month The Wall Street Journal hinted that Paramount Global was exploring a sale of its majority stake in the iconic media group. While a sale is not yet guaranteed, 50 Cent would face stiff competition for ownership from several other Black CEOs such as Tyler Perry who also signaled his interest in securing a majority stake in the media company launched in 1980.
Perry and BET Media Group have a long history, and he currently owns a minority stake in the operation run by CEO Scott Mills.
“I’ve been there for four years now and had tremendous success. I wasn’t expecting this to happen, so, yes … If it’s possible, I’m gonna take as much of it as I can,” Perry told Entertainment Tonight.
The network helped fund his first feature, 2005’s “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” The media mogul also produces a large portion of the programming available on BET and streamer BET+, which he helped launch in 2019.
P. Diddy and Byron Allen are also interested in purchasing BET, and the latter “will be pursuing the acquisition of the network.”
“I’ve read about Byron Allen and Puffy and everybody wanting to bid and so on and so forth, and I think it’s really great,” Tyler Perry said. “This is what I love about it — when Bob Johnson sold it in 2000, I think it was, there wasn’t one Black person who could buy it. So now, to see all of these Black people, men and women, who are able to be in a position to buy it? Man, that makes me feel really, really excited.”
50 Cent recently signed a multi-year deal with FOX and is getting set to embark on his “The Final Lap” tour to celebrate 20 years of “Get Rich or Die Tryin.”
