ViacomCBS

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ViacomCBS Inc.

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN US92556H1077 (A)
US92556H2067 (B)
founding 4th December 2019
Seat New York City , New York , United States
United StatesUnited States 
management Shari Redstone (Chairwoman)
Robert Bakish (President and CEO )
Joe Ianniello (Chairman CBS Entertainment Group )
Branch Media, entertainment
Website www.viacbs.com
Status: January 6, 2020

Viacom main building in New York City
Logo of the "old" Viacom

ViacomCBS Inc. is an American multinational media group based in New York. The company was founded on December 4, 2019 through the merger of CBS Corporation and the second incarnation of Viacom , which resulted from the division of the first Viacom in 2005. The group has companies and interests in the fields of film, television, publishing and digital media.

The company's main activities include the Paramount Pictures film studio , the CBS Entertainment Group (consisting of the CBS network of the same name, CBS Television Studios, CBS Television Stations, CBS Interactive and a 50 percent stake in The CW ), domestic networks (consisting of US basic and premium cable television networks such as MTV , Nickelodeon , BET , Comedy Central and Showtime), international networks (consisting of international versions of domestic ViacomCBS networks as well as regional networks such as Channel 5 in Great Britain, Network 10 in Australia and Telefe in Argentina ), Global Distribution Group (consisting of CBS Television Distribution and CBS Studios International) and Verlag Simon & Schuster .

Headquartered in New York City , the company operates approximately 170 networks.

background

In 1952, CBS founded CBS Films, a division that administered syndication rights to the CBS library of television series. This division was renamed CBS Enterprises Inc. in January 1968 and renamed Viacom again in 1970. In 1971, this syndication division was spun off due to new FCC rules that prohibited syndication companies from owning television stations (the rules were later repealed). In 1986 Viacom was taken over by its current owner, the theater operating company National Amusements . In 1999, Viacom made its largest acquisition to date, announcing plans to merge with former parent company CBS Corporation (renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation, which had merged with CBS in 1995). The merger was completed in 2000 and resulted in the reunification of CBS with the former syndication division. On January 3, 2006, Viacom was split into two companies: CBS Corporation, its successor, and the outsourced company Viacom.

history

Emergence

On September 29, 2016, National Amusements sent a letter to Viacom and CBS asking the two companies to reunite as one company. On December 12, the deal was canceled.

On January 12, 2018, CNBC announced that Viacom had resumed talks to merge back into CBS Corporation after the merger of AT&T - Time Warner and Disney was announced to acquire most of the assets of 21st Century Fox . Viacom and CBS also faced stiff competition from companies like Netflix and Amazon . Shortly thereafter, it was reported that the combined company could be a candidate to acquire Lionsgate film studio . Viacom and Lionsgate were both interested in acquiring The Weinstein Company (TWC). Following the Weinstein scandal, Viacom was listed as one of 22 potential buyers interested in acquiring TWC. They lost the offer, and on March 1, 2018, it was announced that Maria Contreras-Sweet would acquire all of TWC's assets for $ 500 million.

On March 30, 2018, CBS made an all-stock offer slightly below Viacom's market value and insisted that existing leadership, including longtime chairman and CEO Les Moonves , oversee the re-merged company. Viacom declined the offer as being too low, demanding a $ 2.8 billion increase and keeping Bob Bakish as President and COO under Moonves. These conflicts were due to Shari Redstone seeking more control over CBS and its leadership.

Finally, on May 14, 2018, CBS Corporation sued its parent company and Viacom's National Amusements , accusing Redstone of abusing their voting rights in the company and forcing a merger that it and Viacom did not support. CBS also accused Redstone of dissuading Verizon Communications from the acquisition, which could be beneficial for shareholders.

On May 23, 2018, Les Moonves stated that he viewed the Viacom channels as "albatross," and while favoring more content for CBS All Access, he believed there were better deals for CBS than the Viacom deal like Metro-Goldwyn -Mayer, Lionsgate or Sony Pictures would exist. Moonves also viewed Bakish as a threat because he did not want an ally of Shari Redstone as a board member of the combined company.

On September 9, 2018, Les Moonves left CBS following multiple sexual assault allegations. National Amusements agreed not to propose a merger between CBS and Viacom for at least two years after the settlement date.

On May 30, 2019, CNBC reported that CBS Corporation and Viacom would have merger talks in mid-June 2019. The board of directors of CBS has been reshaped with people open to mergers. The merger was made possible by the resignation of Moonves, who had opposed all merger attempts. Talks began after rumors that CBS would take over Starz from Lionsgate. CBS and Viacom reportedly set August 8th as an informal date to reach an agreement to merge the two media companies. CBS announced that it will acquire Viacom for up to $ 15.4 billion as part of the re-merger deal.

On August 2, 2019, it was reported that CBS and Viacom agreed to merge back into one unit. The two companies agreed on the management team for the merger, with Bob Bakish serving as CEO of the combined company with CBS President and Acting CEO Joseph Ianniello overseeing the assets of the CBS brand. On August 7, 2019, CBS and Viacom announced their quarterly results separately as talks on the merger continued.

The start of operations

On August 13, CBS and Viacom announced their merger. The combined company would be called ViacomCBS, with Shari Redstone serving as chairman.

Following the merger agreement, Viacom and CBS jointly announced that the transaction is expected to close in late 2019 pending regulatory and shareholder approvals. The merger must be approved by the Federal Trade Commission.

On October 28, the merger was approved by National Amusements, who then announced the completion of the transaction in early December. The combined company will trade its shares on NASDAQ under the symbols "VIAC" and "VIACA" after CBS Corporation delisted its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

On November 25th, Viacom and CBS announced that the merger would complete on December 4th and begin trading on NASDAQ on December 5th. On December 4, 2019, Bakish confirmed that the ViacomCBS business combination was complete.

On December 10, Bakish announced that ViacomCBS would attempt to divest Black Rock, the headquarters of CBS since 1964. On the same day, the company and its subsidiary Paramount Pictures resumed talks with Miramax (and its owner beIN Media Group) to acquire a stake in the company. On December 20, 2019, ViacomCBS agreed to purchase a 49% stake in Miramax, while beIN retained a 51% majority stake. Paramount announced an exclusive agreement for its library and upcoming films.

Shareholdings and Subsidiaries

ViacomCBS consists of four main units: CBS Entertainment Group, Domestic Media Networks, Networks International and Global Distribution Group.

The CBS Entertainment Group consists of CBS branded assets including the television networks CBS, CBS News, CBS Sports, CBS Television Studios, CBS Television Stations, CBS Interactive and CBS All Access. The unit also has a 50% interest in the joint venture The CW Television Network, which is jointly owned by AT&T subsidiary WarnerMedia through the Warner Bros. division.

Domestic Media Networks includes the pay TV channels offered in the USA such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Showtime, BET, Comedy Central, TV-Land, Paramount Network, Logo, CMT, Pop-TV, VH1, The Movie Channel and Flix. The unit also includes the Smithsonian Channel, which is controlled through a joint venture with the Smithsonian Institution. ViacomCBS Domestic also controls the production facilities for the channels listed above, including Nickelodeon Animation Studio.

Networks International includes certain international versions of the company's domestic channels, as well as region-specific networks such as Channel 5 in the UK, Network 10 in Australia and Telefe in Argentina. ViacomCBS International also owns a third of the Rainbow Srl television studio in Italy and 49% of the shares in the joint venture Viacom 18 with TV18. This unit also includes all channels of the CBS brand throughout Europe, which are jointly owned with AMC Networks International.

The Global Distribution Group focuses on the worldwide distribution of all programs produced by all ViacomCBS production studios. The division consists of CBS Television Distribution, CBS Studios International and Viacom International Studios.

ViacomCBS's other assets include the Paramount Pictures film studio, the ad-supported video-on-demand platform Pluto TV, the Simon & Schuster book publisher, the cross-genre online video conference VidCon, the multi-martial arts promoter Bellator, and the media and entertainment company AwesomenessTV . As of November 2019, AwesomenessTV will be overseen by Brian Robbins, an executive for ViacomCBS Domestic

Web links

Commons : ViacomCBS  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Drew Angerer: CBS and Viacom merge into billion dollar deal . In: spiegel.de. August 14, 2019, accessed April 7, 2020 .