Byron Allen Says Money Isn’t An Issue Regarding $10 Billion Bid to Purchase ABC and Other Disney Stations

Byron Allen has spoken up about his $10 billion offer to buy ABC, FX, National Geographic, and local stations from Disney, saying “capital’s not an issue,” but Bob Iger is “not ready” for a sale.

Bob Iger on Squawk Box

In an interview with David Faber on MSNBC’s “Squawk Box” back in July, Disney CEO Bob Iger agreed with Faber that ABC “may not be core” to The Walt Disney Company, and said that they have to be “open-minded” to potentially selling their TV assets — a comment which basically put them on the market.

Byron Allen
PATRICK T. FALLON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Allen, who is CEO of Entertainment Studios, has acquired many local stations in the past few years, as well as The Weather Channel. He spoke to CNBC’s Julia Boorstin at the Code Conference this week about potentially buying the Disney-owned channels.

“Capital’s not an issue,” he said of his $10 billion offer. “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.” (via Deadline)

Allen said that, despite Iger’s comments on “Squawk Box,” the CEO “is not ready” for the sale.

“These legacy companies are trying to reinvent themselves,” Allen said. “It’s like they’re trying to build a new airplane mid-air while they’re flying their old airplane, in a publicly traded entity. This is a very challenging thing to accomplish. Bob is excellent at what he does, he’s phenomenal, he’s the best person to do it, but whoa, they’re asking him to do something that has not occurred in the last 100 years.”

Allen also mentioned that Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs are advising Iger, as previously rumored.

He said the challenge for Disney when selling their networks is “how do you de-couple it? How do you pull it out of their ecosystem? Because it’s really integrated into everything Disney. That’s the hard part. … If they do get to the point where they’re willing to do it, I’m going to chase it down like a lion chasing a gazelle.”

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