Byron Allen acquires major stake in Starz for $25 million

Allen Family Capital completed the acquisition on Thursday (Mar. 5), less than a year after Starz became an independent company.

Media mogul Byron Allen is making another massive splash.

The investment arm of Allen, Allen Family Capital, has acquired a 10.7 percent stake in Starz Entertainment for $25 million. The deal was a private transaction with former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s Liberty 77 Capital.

On Thursday (Mar. 5), AFC announced it acquired more than 1.8 million common shares of Starz at a purchase price of $13.86 per common share.

Starz, which is home to shows like “P-Valley” and 50 Cent’s “Power” universe, was previously under Lionsgate. Last May, the company split from Starz, allowing the premium cable network and streaming business to trade separately.

Allen acquired the stake in Starz “for investment purposes and intends to review such investment on a continuing basis. As such, Allen may, depending on Starz’s performance and other market conditions, increase or decrease the investment position,” Allen Family Capital said in its announcement.

“Allen may, from time to time, make additional acquisitions of Common Shares or other securities of Starz either in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions, including transactions directly with Starz,” Allen Family Capital said. Such decisions will be based on its “evaluation of Starz’s business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations, the market for the Common Shares or other securities, other opportunities available to Allen, general economic conditions, stock market conditions and other factors.”

The move is the latest investment in television for Allen, who put up some of his local TV stations up for sale, with Gray Media acquiring a few of them. In the wake of Stephen Colbert‘s exit from CBS late-night, Allen is looking to add his “Comics Unleashed” series to air at 12:30 a.m., and then, hopefully, at 11:30 p.m.

Allen Media Group, which Allen founded in 1993, owns and/or operates 27 ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox network affiliate broadcast television stations in 21 different U.S. markets and features 10 television networks that serve nearly 300 million subscribers, including the Weather Channel, theGrio and HBCU Go.