First of all, who are we to comment on how a billionaire conducts her business. But there is one thing that is plain to see, there is more than meets the eye. Someone who is reported to be worth almost $3 billion would not give up control of her flagship business. Most importantly, not for $36 million.
Further buttresses the point that blacks don’t own and control anything of infrastructural value. You will be hard pressed to find a major black media, bank, supermarket, airline, or any multinational corporations.
The few blacks who are fortunate to be in position to change this narrative, for some reason don’t have the resilience to hold on like their white counterparts.
Dr Dre made Beats headphones and sold it to Apple. Michael Jordan sold his Air Jordan brand to Nike. Jay Z is in talks to sell his Tidal streaming service to Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter. Lil Wayne gave up ownership of his entire catalogue of master to Universal Studios for $100 million. The list goes on.
Now it’s Oprah turn to sell to the Discovery channel.
Selling OWN, tagged a symbol of importance for black America for “measly” $36 million makes you wonder if she indeed owned OWN in the first place.
Because a real billionaire don’t need $36 million that badly.
She has stooped from the boss of her business to become an employed CEO for Discovery, who also has a “second job” presenting shows on Apple TV, amongst other platforms.
According to Business Standard, Oprah sold most of her stake in the OWN cable channel to its majority owner, Discovery, for more than $36 million in stock.
Winfrey’s company, Harpo, filed to sell half of the 1.34 million shares received in the transaction, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.
The deal boosts Discovery’s stake in OWN to 95 per cent, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, an increase from more than 70 per cent reported in 2017. The channel was co-founded by Discovery and the long time talk show host in 2011 as a female-focused network, trading off of Winfrey’s huge popularity.
It got off to a rough start, however, and initially wrung up losses. Since then, it has focused more specifically on African-American women, including shows produced by comic actor and producer Tyler Perry.
The OWN content is expected to be part of a new streaming service, Discovery+, which is launching next month.
Winfrey had an agreement with Discovery where she could require the company to purchase part of her interest beginning in 2016. In 2017, Discovery purchased a 25 per cent stake from Winfrey for $70 million. The latest deal suggests the value of the business has declined as smaller cable networks struggle to compete in a streaming world.