Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish acknowledged getting an unsolicited offer for Showtime and turning it down.
It was widely reported last week that former Showtime head David Nevins led a group making a $3 billion offer for the premium programmer.
Speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference on Wednesday, Bakish declined to confirm the amount of the bid.
“Yeah, we got an unsolicited offer for Showtime,” he said. “We looked at it and the reality is it wan’t that interesting to us. If you compare that price to our internal business plan, our internal plan is far more value-creating.”
He added that keeping Showtime, which is being combined with Paramount Plus to form Paramount Plus with Showtime both in streaming and on cable, would help with Paramount’s effort to make streaming a profitable business.
“It just didn’t make sense to divest that asset at anywhere near that price,” Bakish said.
In general, Bakish said, Paramount is “always looking for ways to unlock value,” and that when it gets an offer, “we’re going to look at that.”
Normally, he said, the company’s policy is not to comment, but he opted to weigh in on this one.
Some analysts questioned turning down the deal, with $3 billion representing a big share of Paramount’s market cap and the company needing cash to pay for programming.
Bakish said the plan to combine Paramount Plus with Showtime would be a winner for consumers, who get a better product; a winner for both traditional and streaming distributors, who get to sell a better product; and a win for Paramount shareholders.
Combining Paramount Plus with Showtime will be accretive to revenues because the price will be higher and accretive on an expense basis because it costs more to market two products, two platforms and two organizations, Bakish said.
He said the company has pegged the savings at $700 million. ■
