Sherrese Clarke Soares‘ HarbourView Fairness Companions and Diddy‘s Revolt are among the many bidders finalizing second-round presents to accumulate a majority stake in BET Media Group from Paramount International, in response to two sources with data of the talks.
Jesse Collins Leisure, which produced the Grammys and this yr’s SuperBowl halftime efficiency by Rihanna, can also be mulling becoming a member of HarbourView and Revolt’s joint supply for the package deal of networks that features VH1, stated one of many sources, who requested anonymity as a result of confidential nature of the talks.
Paramount International is reportedly exploring promoting a majority stake in BET Media Group, which incorporates BET, BET+, BET Gospel, BET HER, BET Worldwide, BET Jams, BET Soul, BET Studios and VH1, for as a lot as $3 billion, because it appears to dump property like e-book writer Simon & Shuster and preschool service Noggin to deal with its streaming enterprise.
Sources say different bidders submitting second-round presents for BET Media Group embody Tyler Perry and Byron Allen. Paramount is reportedly trying to finalize offers this fall.
A spokesperson for BET declined to remark for this story.
Soares, whose personal fairness agency owns rights to songs by regional Mexican trio Eslabon Armado, Luis Fonsi and Florida Georgia Line, confirmed throughout a red-carpet interview with Billboard on the BET Awards that HarbourView has an lively bid for the media group.
“We’re right here due to how a lot we help the model and the way excited we’re in regards to the alternative across the model itself,” Soares stated, declining to share additional particulars.
A former Morgan Stanley managing director, Soares based HarbourView in 2021, initially to accumulate publishing and music recording rights — an funding technique she helped develop as CEO and co-founder of Tempo Music. Extra lately, Soares has guided HarbourView’s investments in media firms, aiming to construct out a distribution community for content material soundtracked by artists in its catalog.
In March, HarbourView led a $90 million funding in a minority stake in MACRO, a movie, tv and branding firm based by Charles D. King, whose tasks embody Judas and the Black Messiah. Directed by Shaka King, Judas made historical past in 2021 because the first-ever movie with an all-Black manufacturing staff to be nominated for Greatest Image on the Oscars.
“Our curiosity is to be gasoline to the leisure and media section,” Soares informed Billboard on the BET Awards, referencing HarbourView’s investments in catalogs and MACRO. Relating to the outcomes of the bids for BET, Soares stated, “We’ll let the playing cards fall the place they could.”
