CBS Is Planning Offer for Sister Company Viacom
June 19 2019 - 8:42AM
Dow Jones News
By WSJ City
CBS is preparing to make an offer for sister media company
Viacom in the coming weeks, following a meeting of CBS directors
last week in which a potential deal was discussed, according to
people familiar with the situation.
KEY FACTS
--- Representatives of the firms have already had preliminary
discussions about a deal, one of the people said.
--- If the companies move ahead with talks, it would be a third
attempt to reunite the $30bn empire.
--- It was divided by mogul Sumner Redstone more than 13 years
ago.A deal is far from certain.
--- Determining a price is one major hurdle.
--- Viacom CEO Bob Bakish is thought by people familiar to be
favourite to become CEO of the combined company.
Why This Matters
Shari Redstone, vice chairman of both companies, believes that
CBS and Viacom would be better positioned to compete with larger
rivals as one company. She is president of National Amusements,
which controls both CBS and Viacom.
Viacom has been the weaker of the two companies over the past
several years, having suffered as cable-TV cord-cutting pulled down
ratings for its major networks. A merger with CBS would give Viacom
greater scale and more leverage in negotiations with advertisers
and cable-TV providers.
A fuller story is available on WSJ.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 19, 2019 08:27 ET (12:27 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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