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MTV owner Viacom to remerge with CBS
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 14 August 2019
MTV owner Viacom is merging with fellow American broadcaster CBS to create a combined company called ViacomCBS. Which will look pretty similar to the Viacom/CBS business that was demerged all the way back in 2006.
Despite that demerger, which created the separate Viacom and CBS entities still operating today, Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements still had controlling stakes in both businesses.
His daughter Shari Redstone, who is President of the parent company and Vice-Chair of both Viacom and CBS, has been pushing for the two media outfits to be brought back together for some time. Consolidation elsewhere in the American broadcasting sector and the increasing challenge of competing with the likes of Netflix and Amazon gave further weight to her arguments for such an approach.
Confirming that a merger would now occur, she said: “I am really excited to see these two great companies come together so that they can realise the incredible power of their combined assets. My father once said ‘content is king’ – and never has that been more true than today”.
