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 25, 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 (consisting of the CBS broadcast network, a 50% interest in The CW network and other CBS-branded properties including television studios and broadcast TV stations), ViacomCBS Global Networks Group (consisting of MTV Television, Showtime Networks and Australian broadcasting company Ten Network Holdings), and ViacomCBS Products and Experiences Group (consisting of publishing company Simon & Schuster and the company's consumer products, licensing and recreational assets including Bellator MMA and Kickboxing).

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".

Assets
The company operates under five key divisions:


 * CBS Entertainment contains several properties bearing the CBS brand, including the namesake CBS television network, CBS Interactive (which includes internet brands including the CBS All Access streaming service), a 50% stake in The CW television network, among others.
 * MTV Television operates several basic-cable television networks in the United States including MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, ect.
 * ViacomCBS International Networks operates VCBS's international television channels, among them being Channel 5 in the UK and Ten Network Holdings (a company acquired by CBS Corporation in 2017 responsible for Network 10, a free-to-air television network) in Australia.
 * Digital, Products & Experiences contains the company's licensing, consumer products, publishing, live events units, including publishing company Simon & Schuster, CBS Interactive (which includes internet brands including the CBS All Access streaming service), mixed martial arts promotions Bellator MMA and Bellator Kickboxing, and technology conference VidCon.
 * Advertising Solutions oversees the company's consolidated advertising/group sales and technology operations.

Additionally, direct CEO reporting businesses include:


 * Paramount Pictures, one of the big five film studios, has operations in film production, marketing and distribution, with additional operations including those in television production (Paramount Television Studios) and home entertainment distribution (Paramount Home Media Distribution).
 * Showtime Networks comprises premium-tier cable television networks in the United States including the namesake Showtime network.
 * Viacom 18 owns and operates the company's assets in India, is a joint venture between ViacomCBS and TV18.

Key personnel

 * Shari Redstone, Chairwoman
 * Robert Bakish, President and CEO
 * Joseph Ianniello, Chairman, CBS Entertainment
 * Bruce Gillmer, President and Chief Content Officer, MTV Television
 * Jim Gianopulos, Chairman and CEO, Paramount Pictures
 * David Nevins, Chief Creative Officer, ViacomCBS, Inc. and Chairman / CEO, Showtime Networks