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Tension Builds at CBS and Viacom as Shari Redstone Stokes Merger Talks Again

Jan 18, 2018  •  Post A Comment

“Chatter about Shari Redstone revving up an effort to recombine Viacom and CBS Corp. is sowing tension within both companies,” reports Variety’s managing editor for TV, Cynthia Littleton.

Littleton, one of the smartest observers of the TV biz, adds, “CBS insiders were aghast at a report in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday citing Redstone’s concern about a lack of long-term strategic planning at the Eye and the level of independence among its board members.”

TVWeek reported on Jan 12 an item from Bloomberg saying Redstone wanted to remerge CBS and Viacom.

The Variety story continues, “Meanwhile,  executives are once again nervous about the potential for consolidation with CBS to bring wholesale changes to the management of the company, particularly the cable networks division. The sentiment among insiders is that things have only just started to settle down after a year of turmoil in 2016, before Bob Bakish was named permanent CEO in December of that year. ‘Here we go again,’ said an executive at Viacom’s cable division.”

To read more details about this item please click here, which will take you to Littleton’s story.

Shari Redstone
(at a 2017 recode conference, found on YouTube)

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