CBS shareholders to get slight premium from Viacom deal -sources


Reuters | Washington DC | Updated: 12-08-2019 19:41 IST | Created: 12-08-2019 19:37 IST
CBS shareholders to get slight premium from Viacom deal -sources
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CBS Corp and Viacom Inc are in the final stages of negotiating an all-stock merger that values Viacom at a discount to its closing price on Friday, two sources told Reuters. Shares of CBS rose 0.6% to $49.21 in early trading, while Viacom fell 2.9% to $29.14.

Viacom shareholders will receive just above 0.595 CBS shares for each share they own, the sources said, adding that the final terms could still change. One source said the range was between 0.5960 and 0.5965. Bob Bakish, Chief Executive of Viacom, is expected to be named the Chief Executive of the combined company; Joe Ianniello, interim CEO of CBS, is expected to be named CEO and Chairman of CBS Networks, a source familiar with the matter said. Ianniello's purview would exclude Showtime and publisher Simon & Schuster.

The deal, which could be announced as early as Monday, will reunite CBS and Viacom, bringing together the CBS television networks, cable network Showtime, and book publisher Simon & Schuster with MTV networks, Nickelodeon and the Paramount movie studio. The two companies are controlled by National Amusements Inc, the holding company owned by billionaire Sumner Redstone and his daughter Shari.

The deal comes at a time when an increasingly competitive media landscape, dominated by Walt Disney Co and Netflix Inc, prompted the Redstones to recombine the two companies 13 years after breaking them up. This is CBS's third attempt since 2016 to bring the U.S. entertainment companies together. Previous merger talks had failed because of clashes between executives over divvying up top jobs and the companies' relative valuation.

 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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