Black founders are determined to own media conglomerates.
Group Black, co-founded by Black entrepreneurs Travis Montaque, Richelieu Dennis and Bonin Bougha, has put in a $400 million bid to purchase Vice Media, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Started in 2021, Group Black started to invest and grow Black-owned media firms. If this deal goes through, it would put Vice Media on solid ground after years of turmoil. The company’s valuation has plummeted from $5.7 billion.
Vice initially sought out a sale of $1.5 billion, which would pay the millions owed to vendors, according to WSJ. Adding to the stress, according to Adweek, was the abrupt resignation last month of CEO Nancy Dubai.
New CEOs Bruce Dixon and Hozefa Lokhandwala hope to focus on specific concepts like business fundamentals, efficiencies, and operational focus to get the company back on track. “Vice is a household name, and we have to leverage off the back of that,” Dixon said.
Group Black isn’t the only company with their eyes on Vice. Greek broadcaster Antenna Group also looked into acquiring the company, but nothing came out of it. This leaves the space open for Group Black and other Black media moguls to take over.
Vice is not the only media property up for grabs.
According to reports, after Tyler Perry and Byron Allen put in a bid for BET, Bad Boy Records founder Sean “Diddy” Combs, wanted in too. One source revealed to Variety that Diddy is “exploring the opportunity to purchase BET as a part of his strategy to build a Black-owned global media powerhouse.” The Harlem-born hip-hop icon feels BET should return to being a Black-owned brand. “He truly believes that is “better for the business, for the culture, and for building wealth in the Black community,” the source.
The interesting thing about this bid is Paramount, which owns BET, has not officially announced that the network is for sale.