Business

PE firms in shootout for Dick Clark

Todd Morley’s G2 Investment Group is joining the bidding for TV production big Dick Clark Productions, The Post has learned.

Morley, a co-founder of Guggenheim Partners before setting up his current rival shop in 2009, is drafting former Condé Nast sales chief Richard “Mad Dog” Beckman to run DCP if it wins the bidding battle for the production company that owns “The Golden Globes,” “So You Think You Can Dance” and “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” according to sources close to the bidding.

Beckman was recently booted from Guggenheim-backed Prometheus Global Media, which owns Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter.

Beckman was CEO before being sidelined in a branded entertainment role — one which saw him run the Billboard Music Awards. He exited the firm in June.

G2 wants to bulk up on its media holdings and sees DCP as a good investment, sources said.

Adding a twist to proceedings is that Guggenheim Partners — teaming with Allen Shapiro — is also making a bid for DCP.

Shapiro was CEO of DCP until 2007, when the firm was sold. It is now owned by Daniel Snyder’s Red Zone Capital Group and Six Flags Entertainment, and run by ex-ESPN boss Mark Shapiro — Allen Shapiro’s cousin.

A source close to the process said the company expects to receive between six and eight firm bids for DCP.

No solid deadline for bids exists. DCP is valued at between $300 million and $400 million.

It has also seen interest from Ryan Seacrest; Lionsgate, which recently acquired “Twilight” producer Summit Entertainment; and Apollo’s Core Media, previously known as CKX Inc., sources said.