CBS-Viacom: 20 Years Later, a Look Back at the High Hopes and Eventual Collapse of That First Merger

  • 📰 Variety
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 47 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 22%
  • Publisher: 63%

South Africa News News

South Africa South Africa Latest News,South Africa South Africa Headlines

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 Sum…

revealed the plan at a Sept. 7, 1999, press conference, the combined Viacom/CBS empire was valued at $80 billion.

The Viacom acquisition came nearly five years after Westinghouse paid $5.4 billion for CBS in 1995. In acquiring CBS, Redstone touted the ability to advertise and cross-promote Paramount and Viacom content across CBS’ TV and radio stations, as well as outdoor billboards. The deal was seen as complimentary: CBS was mostly in broadcast , while Viacom’s strengths were in film and cable TV.

Because it oversees broadcast licenses, the FCC was the final step in blessing Viacom/CBS, which it did on May 3, 2000. The first real test of the power of the combined company came soon after, when “Survivor” premiered to stunning ratings — and Redstone credited the merged company’s increased footprint for helping promote the show.

In the corporate boardroom, the Viacom/CBS merger also led to more executive intrigue, as Moonves continued to amass more power and Redstone rather quickly soured on Karmazin.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Nice Information!

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 108. in ZA

South Africa South Africa Latest News, South Africa South Africa Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

CBS And Viacom Finally Re-Tie The Knot, Merging After 13 Years As Separate CompaniesEnding years of fitful discussions that played out against a backdrop of operatic corporate drama and media industry consolidation, CBS and Viacom have finally agreed to merge. The deal reunites th… Yay 😀 Since everyones new favourite word is “monopoly” are we not going to discuss CBS-Viacoms new “monopoly” of TV channels & numerous different streaming services? Or do we just reserve that word for Disney? Lol Yay capitalism...
Source: DEADLINE - 🏆 109. / 63 Read more »

CBS and Viacom negotiating share exchange ratio between 0.5960 and 0.5965 for mergerThe negotiations for the CBS and Viacom merger could finish as soon as Monday, sources say. Government should not allow merger. Mergers are bad for America. Stellate23 Too many mergers and buyouts. The consumer is being squeezed from every angle. Competition is healthy for the economy. Greed and consolidation of power are not. 😳 Such horseshit, if that’s the agreement then the Viacom shareholder is getting screwed.
Source: CNBC - 🏆 12. / 72 Read more »

CBS and Viacom Boards Haggle Over Price as Merger Talks AccelerateBoard members of CBS and Viacom worked most of the weekend in an effort to reach a long-awaited merger agreement for the two halves of the Redstone media empire. Sources close to the situation said…
Source: Variety - 🏆 108. / 63 Read more »