A hint at this name change came in March 2021, when the streaming service CBS All Access changed its name to Paramount+. The rationale here was the same—the company intended to launch the streamer into new countries and territories, where the name “Paramount” had more brand awareness than the U.S.-only company CBS does. Paramount+ has since launched itself in Australia and the Nordic countries. In March of 1994, Viacom bought 61.7 million shares in Paramount to take control of the company, in a deal valued at between $9.5 billion and $10.1 billion by Variety at the time.
The CBS Corp. assets will have a dedicated leader in Joe Ianniello, who shifts from acting CEO to chairman-CEO of CBS, a structure that was mandated by the CBS Corp. board as part of the merger. That has raised questions about whether the companies will remain balkanized. Meg James is a senior entertainment industry writer for the Los Angeles Times. She was the lead reporter for The Times’ coverage of the deadly “Rust” shooting on a New Mexico film set in 2021, work recognized by the Pulitzer Prize board as a finalist in breaking news. A member of the Company Town team for two decades, James specializes in covering television, corporate media and investigative projects. A native of Wyoming, she is a graduate of the University of Colorado and Columbia University.
Column: Trump was just arraigned on federal charges. The media are already getting it wrong
But ViacomCBS has an enterprise value of about $40 billion and would ask for a decent-size premium to sell, two of the people said. While there may be no rush to merge, both companies will ultimately need more scale to compete against larger players. They could partner or merge, or they could attempt to merge with Warner Bros. Another option is a merger or acquisition, but there are numerous complications on that path. Neither ViacomCBS nor NBCUniversal are actively seeking a merger at this time, according to people familiar with the matter. One of the options under consideration is to bundle Peacock and Paramount+ together in international markets, as The Information reported earlier this year.
In June 2005, Viacom announced its purchase of Neopets, a virtual pet website,[18] along with GameTrailers, GoCityKids, and iFilm. After the breakup, however, CBS proved to be a steady ship, while Viacom saw its shares stagnate as the company struggled to figure out how to adjust to the digital age — leading to Redstone’s quick ouster of Freston in 2006. It’s been nearly 20 years since Viacom and CBS first announced their intent to merge, in a $35 billion deal that was billed at the time as the biggest ever in showbiz. When Viacom’s Sumner Redstone and then-CBS president and CEO Mel Karmazin revealed the plan at a Sept. 7, 1999, press conference, the combined Viacom/CBS empire was valued at $80 billion. The proposed merger of the two New York-based companies is the latest in the wave of entertainment industry consolidations and was widely expected. It was the third time in three years that CBS and Viacom attempted to hook up.
Ivanka Trump & Jared Kushner’s Reportedly Shady Finances Are Being Called Out by This Former Donald Trump Ally
It’s likely any merger will have to include a divestiture of one of the broadcast networks along with all local NBC or CBS television affiliates that overlap in the same markets. The merger is the latest consolidation in the entertainment industry, following Disney’s acquisition of large parts of Fox, and AT&T’s takeover of Time Warner. However, the newly merged company will be small in comparison with its competitors — Disney has a market capitalization of $245 billion, while Netflix is currently valued at $136 billion and Comcast is worth $193 billion. The deal brings Viacom’s Paramount Pictures and cable channels such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and BET together with the CBS broadcast network, Showtime, 28 O&O TV stations, CBS All Access and Simon & Schuster. The combined company, lead by Viacom CEO Bob Bakish, will have annual revenue of about $28 billion. The merger of the two halves of the Redstone family media empire into ViacomCBS was completed Wednesday, just four months after the boards of CBS and Viacom reached an agreement on an all stock-swap transaction.
Channels were replaced with other networks including Sprout, FXX, Pivot, Uplifting Entertainment, Investigation Discovery, Oprah Winfrey Network, Women’s Entertainment, and TheBlaze. On April 1, 2014, Cable One removed 15 channels owned by Viacom (MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, and TV Land) off after the two companies failed to reach an agreement. Channels were replaced with other networks, including BBC America, Sprout, Sundance TV, IFC, Investigation Discovery, TV One, CMP/TV, National Geographic Channel, and TheBlaze. Shari Redstone led a management shakeup at Viacom in 2016 that ousted her father’s longtime allies.
Industry Insight
Like Lionsgate and AMC Networks, or pushing for an acquisition of Sony Pictures. Discovery forces both NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS to wait two or three more years, given the length of time it would take to merge to gain regulatory approval — first for WarnerMedia and Discovery and then for the second merger. There would also be integration costs and issues from two large deals happening so quickly. https://forexhero.info/tokenexus-crypto-exchange-is-it-a-legit-service/ Discovery combined with either ViacomCBS or NBCUniversal could pose regulatory issues, depending on how Biden administration regulators view the entertainment market. A bundled offering through a commercial partnership skirts the merger and acquisition issues — and is ultimately the most likely “step one” scenario — but it gives less flexibility to the companies on offerings than a merger would.
- But of all of its holdings, Paramount is the oldest company (founded in 1912, 15 years before CBS) and its most globally recognized of its brands.
- Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day.
- “Shari is going to put it back together again,” said Mario Gabelli, founder and chief executive of Gabelli Asset Management Company Investors, one of the biggest holders of the preferred shares in CBS and Viacom.
- Then Redstone’s National Amusements took control of the company in 1986, and he began an acquisitions spree that included Paramount Communications in 1994 and Blockbuster Video, which included Spelling Entertainment, in 1995.
Back in 2017, Viacom and CBS Vice Chair Shari Redstone talked with Recode’s Peter Kafka at Code Conference about the venture firm she co-founded in 2011, Advancit Capital, and how content companies like Viacom are facing the challenges of the digital age. Some of these conditions can change, and it’s possible that a merged CBS/Viacom will get bought by … someone, eventually. But for now Redstone will try to argue that a combined CBS and Viacom will be more powerful than they are on their own (and that they will also carve out $500 million a year in synergies, which means lots of layoffs for people who work at both places).