When we get the right partner we are off to the races. The only other thing that will move the stock is paying subs. That is a good month away.
Look at what Liberty Media has done with other partners. If Dick Baron and a host of other industry experts have no doubt that ACTV is the biggest thing to come down the pike in cable EVER-then
imagine what ACTV will be worth if they play their cards right.
BET Accepts Investor Group Bid
Of $378 Million, Sending Shares Up
By SALLY GOLL BEATTY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
BET Holdings Inc. accepted a sweetened bid to be taken private by an investment group led by Chairman Robert Johnson, which offered to pay $63 a share, or $378 million, for the 32% of the company it doesn't already own.
Mr. Johnson and his backers raised their bid after an earlier, $48-a-share offer was found ''not adequate'' by an outside board member. News of the deal sent shares of BET Holdings, the Washington-based parent of Black Entertainment Television, surging 11%, or $6.0625, to $60.5625 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Mr. Johnson, a cable pioneer who created Black Entertainment Television, already owns 46% of BET Holdings' shares. He is making his takeover bid in concert with Tele-Communications Inc.'s programming arm, Liberty Media Corp., which owns 22% of BET's stock.
Their initial bid was rejected by Delano Lewis, an executive at National Public Radio and one of BET Holdings' few independent directors, who called in Goldman, Sachs & Co. to help evaluate the offer. BET Holdings' shareholders are expected to vote on the proposal at a special meeting in early summer. BET Holdings went public in 1991 at $17 a share.
Mr. Johnson said he expected the buyout to give the company "more flexibility in decision-making and how we deploy our cash." He also said it would free managers to "be more aggressive in focusing on long-term value rather than short-term earnings."
Mr. Johnson also said he wants to expand the company's core cable-TV business and use its brand name in other ventures. As examples, he cited a theme restaurant called BET Soundstage, a line of clothing launched last month with New York-based G-III Apparel Group Ltd., and a joint venture with Microsoft Corp., MSBET, that offers on-line information about BET programs, access to chat rooms tied to BET shows and links to other entertainment sites designed to appeal to African-Americans.
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