CBS Is Planning Offer for Sister Company Viacom
June 18 2019 - 4:27PM
Dow Jones News
By Benjamin Mullin and Keach Hagey
CBS Corp. is preparing to make an offer for sister media company
Viacom Inc. 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.
Representatives of CBS and Viacom have already had preliminary
discussions about the outlines of a deal, one of the people
said.
If the companies move ahead with talks, it would be a third
attempt to reunite the media empire that was divided by mogul
Sumner Redstone more than 13 years ago.
A deal is far from certain. Determining the price for a stock
transaction -- which requires setting a value for the companies
relative to each other -- is one major hurdle.
Picking a new leadership team is another challenge. Viacom Chief
Executive Bob Bakish is widely believed by people close to the
process to be in pole position to become CEO of the combined
company. There is debate and discussion already about how the rest
of the management team would fill out, people familiar with the
situation said.
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
Inc., which controls both CBS and Viacom.
Write to Benjamin Mullin at Benjamin.Mullin@wsj.com and Keach
Hagey at keach.hagey@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 18, 2019 16:12 ET (20:12 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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