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ViacomCBS

What isn't moot is the fact that you posted that CBS didn't own a studio, when in fact they do. However, you, for once have a partial point. A so-called 'update' that had nothing to do with the OP topic is what led to this tangent.
 
That's OK...overall I think my track record is pretty good. Meanwhile, you predicted AT&T would lose its case with DOJ.
 
Yes, I opined that it would, and it still may change upon appeal. I did not, however, post an obvious in accurate fact and then decline to own that I did so, as you did. Please feel free to think that your 'track record is pretty good'. The list of those that agree is pretty small.
 
Especially now that Les Moonves is in trouble with the CBS shareholders/brass, it's pretty much a matter of when, not if, CBS and Viacom are re-joined.
 
ShawnHill1 said:
Especially now that Les Moonves is in trouble with the CBS shareholders/brass, it's pretty much a matter of when, not if, CBS and Viacom are re-joined.
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Its not just Les Moonves that's on the Hot seat here its also Jeff Fager of CBS News that's on the hot seat. Its going to be who does the Redstone's via National Amusement s and the CBS board put in CBS Management at the CEO division and at CBS News that's at play here and can do whatever the Redstone's want them to do here.
 
https://www.businessinsider.com/cbs...-for-les-moonves-replacement-2018-8?r=UK&IR=T

There are reports that the Redstone's along with National Amusement s and CBS Board are looking for a new CEO at CBS due to the Moonves fallout.

. The investigation into sexual-harassment allegations against CBS CEO Les Moonves is just getting started, but it looks as if the company's controlling shareholder has little faith the 68-year-old will be vindicated.

According to NBC News, CBS' controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, is already asking around about a possible replacement for Moonves, who has worked at the company for 23 years.

Two people close to Redstone, who asked to remain anonymous since they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, told the outlet she had been asking people to suggest candidates who could run the network.

One executive who spoke with NBC News said Richard Parsons, the former CEO of Time Warner, was helping come up with a list of possible replacements for Moonves.

Business Insider contacted CBS, its parent company National Amusements, and representatives for Parsons on Thursday morning but did not immediately receive a response.
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This stuff is running at the same time as the Viacom talks are at play here.
 
https://deadline.com/2018/09/cbs-se...porate-fight-lawsuits-les-moonves-1202457668/

Here is an update on the Settlement

EXCLUSIVE: Just weeks before the fall TV season starts, the bitter legal battle between CBS and National Amusements over corporate control and a possible merger with Viacom may be coming to an end.


The Les Moonves-led company, which fired the first cannon with its May 14 breach of fiduciary duty suit, and the Redstone family dominated holding company are in settlements talks, we’ve learned.

With a myriad of issues on the table in the now multiple lawsuits, the recently started sit-down has not come to a conclusion over the fate of CBS CEO Moonves, who has been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Two law firms are conducting independent investigations into the allegations and broader questions about workplace conduct, reporting to the sub-committee of the CBS board of directors.
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https://www.vanityfair.com/news/201...-of-cbs-federal-prosecutors-eye-the-redstones

Apparently National Amusements is also under investigation and these allegations could remove the Redstones from leadership.

Wow National Amusements just Removed Les Moonves out of the CBS CEO Seat and Jeff Fager. Now National Amusements could face removing the Redstones too. Wow Viacom is having a front row seat to this drama.

As CBS tries to forget Les Moonves, its disgraced ex-C.E.O., an even more portentous question hangs over the $20 billion company. It’s not the issue of Moonves’s potential $120 million severance, which could provide a humiliating coda to his resignation, or the search for his successor, or even the labyrinthine legal squabble about the issuance of dilutive dividends between the CBS board and the Redstone family, the company’s controlling shareholder, which was dropped when Moonves agreed to step down. Rather, it is a separate legal case winding its way through a California court that threatens to make the Moonves scandal an anecdote in the broader fight over the future of CBS.

Since 2015, Sumner Redstone’s ex-girlfriend, Manuela Herzer, has been battling to have herself reinstated into his will, arguing that Sumner, the family’s 95-year-old patriarch, was mentally incapable of exiling her, and that Sumner’s daughter, Shari, had manipulated him into removing her from his estate. A related federal RICO lawsuit was dismissed in July, but Herzer is still seeking damages in state court that could amount to tens of millions of dollars. More important, from the point of view of CBS shareholders, the case could prove that Sumner—who is immobile and is relegated to poking “yes,” “no,” and “**** you” buttons on his iPad—was not of sound mind when Shari assumed control of his media empire nearly three years ago.


Concerns over Sumner’s competency may not be limited to the CBS boardroom, either. Earlier this month, a federal grand jury in California was convened to assemble evidence regarding the various lawsuits brought by Manuela Herzer in several courts against Sumner Redstone, Shari Redstone and Tyler Korff, one of Shari’s sons. The grand jury, which appears to be weighing possible criminal tax-related violations, issued subpoenas on September 7 to law firms representing Herzer, according to a source who has seen one of the subpoenas. The subpoenas, according to this person, demand that the law firms “turn over” by September 26, “any and all (non-privileged) materials, written, digital, video, audio or other, specifically including but not limited to any and all such documents produced or exchanged in any state, federal, probate, or administrative proceeding involving or related to Sumner Redstone, Shari Redstone, Tyler Korff, or Manuela Herzer.” If the law firms do not voluntarily comply, lawyers at the firms could be required to appear before the grand jury.

It is too soon to say what California prosecutors are hoping to learn. While grand juries most often end with an indictment, they are also used as investigatory tools to subpoena documents and compel testimony under oath. That could present a major legal headache for the Redstones, depending on what information is uncovered. The investigation could, for example, help resolve how Shari was able to take over her father’s throne in 2016, given that Sumner is still alive and that the trust he established to pass control of National Amusements, the family holding company, has likely not yet gone into effect. Another possibility, the source speculated, is that the I.R.S. and the Justice Department are interested in whether Shari obtained her family’s nearly 80 percent voting stakes in both CBS and Viacom in accordance with existing tax laws. According to the subpoenas, the case is being led by Nicola Hanna, the U.S. attorney in the Central District of California, and John Kucera, an assistant U.S. attorney in the same jurisdiction, along with Robert Liu, a special agent at the I.R.S. in the Criminal Investigation unit that investigates “potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes,” according to the I.R.S. Web site.

Nobody involved in the grand-jury tax case is talking. Neither Hanna nor Kucera would comment; reached by telephone, Liu declined to comment on an ongoing investigation. Sara Evans, a spokesman for Shari Redstone, declined to comment. Attorneys at Bird Marella, in Los Angeles, who are representing Herzer in her ongoing civil lawsuit, declined to comment, as did Ronald Richards, who represented Herzer in her since-dismissed criminal-conspiracy lawsuit against the Redstones. CBS also declined to comment about the subpoena. Robert Klieger, an attorney for the Redstones who is also a CBS board member, did not respond to a request. He has long maintained that he sees Sumner Redstone regularly, that he “FaceTimes” with him, and that Sumner is competent to make the decisions that he has been making in recent years.
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Also The Redstones has to face the fallout on how to deal with the Moonves and Fager lawsuits though.
 
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...iacom-undergo-more-executive-turnover-1148799

More updates on the changes coming to CBS and Viacom due to the merger talks.

Changes are coming fast and furious at the companies controlled by Sumner and Shari Redstone, leading Wall Street to presume a merger is inevitable.
Some housecleaning measures at CBS and Viacom, the latest being the departure of a few communications executives and a promotion for Brian Robbins, have rank-and-file workers at both conglomerates feeling a bit woozy.

On Monday, Viacom said Robbins, who had been running Paramount Players, will now run Nickelodeon as its president, while on Friday Viacom vp corporate communications Jeremy Zweig departed and one day earlier at sister company CBS chief communications officer Gil Schwartz announced his retirement.

Changes, in fact, are coming fast and furious at the two companies controlled by Sumner and Shari Redstone, leading Wall Street to presume a merger is inevitable, speculation that shifted into overdrive with the Sept. 9 removal of Leslie Moonves amid accusations of sexual harassment that the former CEO has denied.

There also was regime change two years ago at Viacom when a feud with the Redstones led to the departure of CEO Philippe Dauman. Hence, when Bob Bakish filled that role, his allies were in, while the former’s were on the outs. Four days after Bakish took over in August 2016, for example, Carl Folta stepped down as Viacom’s PR chief and Zweig was seen as one of his lieutenants, so his contract wasn’t renewed after it recently expired.

With Robbins leaving Paramount Players, a search is underway for a new leader there, and staff requirements could change, as they could at Nickelodeon now that Robbins has replaced Cyma Zarghami, who had 30 years with the company and was part of Dauman’s crew.

Beyond the issues of where loyalties are aligned, the Redstones are presumably keen on reuniting CBS and Viacom, undoing their split 13 years ago, a necessary move as consolidation (Walt Disney buying most of 21st Century Fox, AT&T buying time Warner, etc..) alters the entertainment landscape.
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Viacom stockholders are very excited by this. They've had nothing to be happy about for three years. There's been an ongoing "brain drain" during that time, with all of the divisions cleaning house.

The only thing left will be the price.
 
https://nypost.com/2018/11/18/the-cbs-viacom-merger-could-be-a-few-months-away-insiders/

Here is an update on the CBS Viacom talks

Not only is Stephen Colbert hopping into bed with SpongeBob SquarePants, they’ll stay up all night playing “Grand Theft Auto” together.

That, at least, is shorthand for one of the surprising media-merger scenarios that’s getting pitched as Colbert’s network, CBS, gears up for talks with Viacom, the owner of “SpongeBob” broadcaster Nickelodeon, The Post has learned.

After CBS boss Les Moonves’ sensational September downfall on sexual-assault allegations, insiders said the TV giant’s board could announce a merger with Viacom in the next three to six months — a deal that Moonves had fiercely resisted.

“I would be surprised if we are sitting around in March and CBS and Viacom are not combined,” said one media exec close to the situation.

The source noted that the pressure to merge has intensified with the tie-ups between Fox and Disney and AT&T and Time Warner. An auction of CBS, meanwhile, has failed to attract other bidders.

But that’s not the only deal that media heiress Shari Redstone — who controls CBS and Viacom through her ailing father Sumner Redstone’s holding company National Amusements Inc. — is weighing after reshuffling CBS’s board, sources say.
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https://nypost.com/2018/11/26/strauss-zelnick-could-be-the-120m-hire-to-run-cbs-viacom/

Another mention in the CBS Viacom talks.

Strauss Zelnick would be the $120 million man if he ends up running a combined CBS and Viacom, The Post has learned.

He is a leading contender in the mix to run the media colossus — partially due to his close relationship with mogul Shari Redstone. Zelnick, the current head of Take-Two Interactive and CBS chairman, would cost the merged entity plenty in employment guarantee payouts.

Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish and CBS interim CEO Joe Ianniello — who replaced boss Les Moonves in early September — have clauses in their employment agreements that guarantee big money if there is a change in ownership.

Bakish stands to receive $50 million and Ianniello $70 million if there is a merger and neither is the chosen leader, according to sources and a review of public records.
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