Word: deal
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Certainly there are other potential pitfalls for this deal, including considerable regulatory hurdles. Under current law, one company can't own two networks. That might cause Viacom to divest its half-share of the struggling UPN. Turf battles will arise between the bosses who head the various jewels in the Viacom empire, as well as in areas in which there are duplicate functions--the new company has three syndication arms, as well as three prime-time television-show suppliers...
Sumner Redstone has done his last big deal. Probably. This year anyway. Oh, heck, at least before our next issue hits the stands. That seems safe. He keeps saying he's done, hedging ever so slightly, and then proving himself wrong. It's either a rare lapse of vision for this self-made billionaire or the grandest ongoing head fake in the entertainment industry...
...done now?" he asks rhetorically. "I can't see any deal on the horizon that approaches the implications for future growth at Viacom [that the] CBS [deal does]. But, of course, nothing is certain." That's the same basic message that Redstone, Viacom's CEO and controlling shareholder, delivered in the wake of his $10 billion acquisition of Paramount Communications in 1994--a stunning deal in its day, one that kept Redstone busy for the next four years selling pieces of Martin Davis' empire to pay down a heaping pile of debt. Last year, when I spoke with Redstone...
Redstone has always taken big risks. The Paramount bidding went $2 billion higher than his target, but he spent the money anyway. He now says he'd never burden Viacom like that again and notes that the CBS deal, a stock swap, was done without paying a premium or adding debt...
...Scouting Report] The peacock was ruffled by the Viacom deal. It is now the only TV network without a production arm to create programming. For now, NBC is looking to expand its reach by possibly taking a 32% stake in Pax Communications...