Paramount, Inc.

ViacomCBS, Inc. is an American multinational mass media conglomerate with interests primarily in film, commercial broadcasting, publishing, and television production, which was formed as a merger between of CBS Corporation and the second incarnation of Viacom, the two companies that succeeded the original Viacom, on December 4, 2019. It operates approximately 170 networks and reaches approximately 700 million subscribers in approximately 160 countries.

The company's main assets include the Paramount Pictures film studio, CBS Entertainment Group (consisting of CBS-branded properties including the namesake CBS network, CBS Television Studios, CBS Television Stations, CBS Interactive and a 50% interest in The CW), Domestic Media Networks (consisting of basic and premium-tier cable television networks including MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, Showtime, etc.) International Media Networks (consisting of international versions of domestic ViacomCBS networks as well as region-specific networks including Channel 5 in the UK and Ten Network Holdings in Australia), Global Distribution Group (consisting of CBS Television Distribution and CBS Studios International), and publishing company Simon & Schuster.

The company is currently the world's sixth largest media company in terms of revenue, and is headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

Background
The original Viacom was created in 1952 as the television syndication division of CBS, and was spun off in 1971. In 1999, Viacom acquired its former parent, by this time also named CBS Corporation (formerly Westinghouse Electric). In January 2006, Viacom was spun off into two entities, CBS Corporation and the present-day Viacom.

Formation
On September 29, 2016, National Amusements sent a letter to the company and CBS Corporation, encouraging the two companies to merge back into one company. On December 12, the deal was called off.

On January 12, 2018, CNBC reported that Viacom had re-entered talks to merge back into CBS Corporation, after the planned merger of AT&T-Time Warner and Disney's proposed acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets were announced. Viacom and CBS also faced heavy competition from companies such as Netflix and Amazon. Shortly afterward, it was reported that the combined company could be a suitor for acquiring the film studio Lionsgate. Viacom and Lionsgate were both interested in acquiring The Weinstein Company. Following the Weinstein effect, Viacom was listed as one of 22 potential buyers that were interested in acquiring The Weinstein Company. They have lost the bid, and on March 1, 2018, it was announced that Maria Contreras-Sweet will 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 insisting that its existing leadership, including long-time chairman and CEO Les Moonves, oversee the re-combined company. Viacom rejected the offer as being too low, requesting an increase by $2.8 billion, and requesting that Robert Bakish be maintained as president and COO under Moonves. It was reported these conflicts had resulted from Shari Redstone seeking more control over CBS and its leadership.

Eventually, on May 14, 2018, CBS Corporation sued its and Viacom's parent company National Amusements and accused Shari Redstone of abusing her voting power in the company and forcing a merger that was not supported by it or Viacom. CBS also accused Redstone of discouraging Verizon Communications from acquiring it, which could have been beneficial to its shareholders.

On May 23, 2018, Les Moonves stated that he considered the Viacom channels to be an "albatross," and while he favors more content for CBS All Access, he believes that there are better deals for CBS than the Viacom deal, such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate or Sony Pictures. Moonves also considered Bakish a threat because he does not want an ally of Shari Redstone as a board member of the combined company.

On September 9, 2018, Les Moonves exited CBS after being accused by twelve women of sexual assault. National Amusements agreed to make no proposal of a CBS-Viacom merger for at least two years after the date of the settlement.

On May 30, 2019, CNBC reported that CBS Corporation and Viacom would explore merger discussions in mid-June 2019. CBS's board of directors was revamped with people who are open to a merger, The re-merger was made possible with the resignation of Moonves (who opposed all attempts for a Viacom merger). The talks had started following rumors of CBS acquiring Starz from Lionsgate. Reports said that CBS and Viacom reportedly set August 8 as an informal deadline for reaching an agreement to recombine the two media companies. CBS announced to acquire Viacom as part of the re-merger deal for up to $15.4 billion.

On August 2, 2019, it was reported that CBS and Viacom agreed to merge back into one entity. Both companies came to an agreement on the management team for the merger, with Robert Bakish serving as the CEO of the combined company while the president and acting CEO of CBS, Joseph Ianniello, will oversee the CBS-branded assets. On August 7, 2019, CBS and Viacom separately reported their quarterly earnings as the talks about the re-merger continued.

On August 13, CBS and Viacom officially announced their merger; the combined company would be named ViacomCBS. Shari Redstone will also serve as chairwoman of the new company. On October 29, 2019, National Amusements approved the re-merger deal and expected to close the deal on early December with the recombined company will trading its shares on NASDAQ under the symbols "VIAC" and "VIACA".

Company units
ViacomCBS comprises four major units:


 * CBS Entertainment Group consists of CBS-branded assets, including the CBS television network, CBS News, CBS Sports, CBS Television Stations, and CBS Interactive, which includes the CBS All Access subscription video-on-demand service. The unit also has a 50% interest in The CW television network joint venture co-owned by AT&T subsidiary WarnerMedia through its Warner Bros. division.


 * Domestic Media Networks encompasses the pay television channels provided in the United States, such as MTV, Nickelodeon, Showtime, BET, Comedy Central, TV Land, Paramount Network, Logo, CMT, Pop TV, VH1, The Movie Channel, and Flix, as well as video-on-demand streaming services CBS All Access and Pluto TV. The unit also includes the Smithsonian Channel, which is controlled via a joint venture with the Smithsonian Institution. ViacomCBS Domestic additionally controls production facilities for the channels listed above, including Nickelodeon Animation Studio.


 * Networks International encompasses certain international versions of the company's domestic channels, as well as region-specific networks, such as Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, Network 10 in Australia, and Telefe in Argentina. ViacomCBS International also owns a third of the Rainbow S.r.l. television studio in Italy, as well as a 49% stake in the Viacom 18 joint venture with TV18. This unit also includes all CBS-branded channels across Europe, which are co-owned with AMC Networks International.

Other assets owned by ViacomCBS are the Paramount Pictures film and television studio, book publisher Simon & Schuster, multi-genre online video conference VidCon, mixed martial arts promotion Bellator, and media and entertainment company AwesomenessTV. As of November 2019, AwesomenessTV is overseen by its co-founder Brian Robbins, an executive for ViacomCBS Domestic.