Cbs-viacom merger reunites storied network with Comedy Central, MTV

After years of on-again, off-again merger talks, broadcast giant CBS Corp. and its corporate sibling Viacom Inc. on Tuesday finally agreed to reunite in a nearly $12 billion deal that will bring together such wellknown brands as CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon and Showtime.

CBS, which is the larger of the two companies and worth $18.5 billion, will absorb the smaller Viacom, which owns such assets as BET, Comedy Central and the Paramount Pictures movie studio in Hollywood. The new company will be called Viacomcbs Inc., in a nod to the legacy of Sumner Redstone, the ailing 96-year-old media titan who built an empire from a small chain of drive-in movie theaters in the Northeast.

Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish will become president and chief executive of the new entity, and gain a seat on the board. Shari Redstone, the mogul’s daughter, will become the first chairwoman in Viacom’s history.

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.

Last year, telecommunications colossus AT&T bought HBO, CNN, TBS and the Warner Bros. studio in an $85 billion deal. In March, Walt Disney Co. completed a $71.3 billion acquisition of much of Rupert Murdoch’s Hollywood holdings.

CBS and Viacom suddenly found themselves medium-sized players, no longer leaders of the industry. But it wasn’t just a consolidating industry and splintering audiences that drove the two companies together. Both were weakened by years of internal turmoil: boardroom battles, costly lawsuits, financial miscalculations and management woes.

Viacomcbs will be worth about $32 billion.

Investors responded favorably to the news.