Byron Allen Sells Stake in Starz

Byron Allen is out of the Starz business.

The media mogul has sold his entire 10.7 percent take in the pay-TV and streaming company that spun out from Lionsgate last year.

Allen had acquired his stake through his family office from former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s Liberty 77 investment fund earlier this year, paying $25 million for the shares.

A new disclosure filed with the SEC Thursday afternoon however shows that Allen sold off his entire holdings over the course of August and September, netting him a bit less than $45 million, the filings indicate.

Starz adopted a poison pill to prevent Allen from taking a larger stake after he disclosed the purchase, but he told The Hollywood Reporter that he nonetheless had his sights on the premium service.

“When I decide to buy the whole company — I will buy the whole company — I do plan on controlling Starz,” he said, adding that he wanted an SVOD service to complement what he is doing with BuzzFeed.

He has since, however, changed his mind, it seems, as the filing indicates.

Starz is in the midst of a transformation, and the company reported growing revenue and declining losses in its Q3 earnings report Thursday, driven by franchises like Power and Outlander.

Allen, of course, owns properties like The Weather Channel and HBCU Go, and hosts and produces Comics Unleashed, which airs on CBS at 11:30 p.m. He also acquired a controlling stake in BuzzFeed earlier this year, with plans to leverage that digital company’s scale to build a streaming video and advertising business.