Sony wants it all

Just in time for the network's 25th anniversary, Sony has bought all of GSN. They paid AT&T roughly a half-billion (that's billion with a "b") dollars for its 42% minority stake in the cable net.

The actual valuation of the AT&T stake was $380 million. The transaction also included $130 million in dividends owed by Sony. If you do the math, you'll see that the deal implies a total valuation of about $900 million for GSN. That's a lot of money for a bunch of game shows...and a video game sideline.

The linked Variety story says that the corporate partners earlier explored a sale of the video games unit. But Sony now seems to want to keep all of GSN's operations. There had been a lot of talk that AT&T badly needed cash to pay down debt incurred in its acquisitions of DirecTV and Time Warner. This deal will provide a little relief.

The minority stake in GSN dates back to the network's near-death experience in 2001. Sony sold an interest in the network to Liberty Media, and that stake has migrated through a few owners since then. It's all come back to Sony now.

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