CBS unlikely to pay Lionsgate\u2019s $5.5 billion price tag for Starz

Lionsgate’s chances of selling its Starz TV network to CBS for $5.5 billion just shrank — by about $2 billion.

Investors in the film studio behind “The Hunger Games” made it abundantly clear this week that they don’t see CBS writing a $5 billion-plus check to Lionsgate to acquire Starz, the station behind “The Spanish Queen” and other popular miniseries.

Investors did this by sending Lionsgate’s stock down 6.8% on disappointing earnings news — a decline that pushed the company’s market value down to $3.1 billion.

At one point Friday, the stock plunged as much as 10% to $13.50 — a price that would make Starz worth 91% more than the company containing it if it were sold for $5.5 billion, according to FBN analyst Robert Routh.

The stock slide follows reports last week that Lionsgate asked CBS to boost a $5 billion informal offer to buy Starz, which Lionsgate acquired for $4.4 billion in 2016, to $5.5 billion.

Routh said he found the stock drop disconcerting in light of the fact that Lionsgate, even without Starz, “would still own and distribute a sizable film and TV library,” including “The Hunger Games,” “The Twilight Saga” and “Saw,” as well as the third installment of “John Wick,” which has grossed more than $100 million since opening last weekend.

Routh blamed the company’s plummeting value in part to recent bullish comments on Starz’s burgeoning international streaming service, StarzPlay.

Lionsgate Chief Executive Jon Feltheimer spoke so passionately about StarzPlay in an earnings call Thursday “analysts ended the call thinking Lionsgate will never sell [Starz],” Routh said.

In the call, Feltheimer said StarzPlay will be in 51 countries by July 1, “making us one of the three leading pure-play subscription video on-demand services in the world.” He then predicted StarzPlay would attract up to 25 million new international subscribers by 2025.

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