Viacom
From Open Encyclopedia
- This page is about the post-2005 Viacom. For the company known as Viacom prior to 2006 (and now known as CBS Corporation), see Viacom (1971-2005).
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| Type | Public (NYSE: VIAB) |
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| Founded | 2006{{ref |
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location = New York, New York, USA| key_people = Sumner Redstone, Executive Chairman & Founder
Tom Freston, President & CEO| num_employees = | industry = Cable TV, Motion Pictures| products = MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, more...| revenue = | homepage = www.viacom.com
}}
Viacom is a "high-growth" media conglomerate with various worldwide interests in cable / satellite television networks (MTV Networks and BET), video gaming (Sega of America), and movie production and distribution (the Paramount Pictures movie studio and DreamWorks). Tom Freston is the President and Chief Executive Officer; Sumner Redstone is the Chairman and, through National Amusements, majority shareholder of Viacom.
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History
In March 2005, the prior Viacom (now known as CBS Corporation) announced plans of looking into splitting the company into two publicly traded companies. The company was not only dealing with a stagnating stock price, but also the rivalry between Les Moonves and Tom Freston, longtime heads of CBS and MTV Networks respectively. After the departure of Mel Karmazin in 2004, Redstone, who served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, decided to split the offices of President and Chief Operating Officer between Moonves and Freston. Redstone was set to retire in the near future, and a split would be a creative solution to the matter of replacing him.
The split was approved by Viacom's board June 14, 2005, approved December 31, 2005, and effectively undid the Viacom/CBS merger of 1999. The original Viacom changed its name to CBS Corporation and is headed by Moonves. It now includes Viacom's "slow growth businesses", namely CBS, UPN, CBS Radio, Simon & Schuster, Paramount Parks, Viacom Outdoor, Showtime, and most television production assets. These, according to some analysts, were suffocating the growth of the MTV Networks cable businesses. (The split was structured such that CBS Corporation is actually the company previously known as Viacom.)
A new company, the present Viacom, was also spun-off and is headed by Freston. It is comprised of MTV Networks, Paramount's movie studio, and Paramount Pictures' home entertainment operations. These businesses are categorized as the high-growth businesses (MTV Networks and BET Networks in particular), and if they were split into a separate company, it could infuse new funds/capital to allow for future acquisitions and expansion. Sumner Redstone still controls 71 percent of the voting stock of both companies and is the chairman of both companies.
In June 2005, Viacom announced that it has purchased Neopets, a virtual pet website. That December, Paramount announced it would acquire DreamWorks. All indications are that the whole of DreamWorks - both film and TV studios, albeit not the DreamWorks archive - will remain owned by Viacom, even though CBS acquired Paramount's own TV studio. On February 1, 2006, Paramount completed its long-awaited acquisition of DreamWorks, welcoming them to the Viacom family.
Corporate governance
The previous board of directors of Viacom were: George Abrams, David Andelman, Joseph Califano, Jr., William Cohen, Philippe Dauman, Alan Greenberg, Charles Phillips, Shari Redstone, Sumner Redstone, Frederic Salerno, William Schwartz, and Robert D. Walter.
Following the Viacom/CBS split, the Viacom board consists of: George Abrams, Philippe Dauman, Thomas E. Dooley, Tom Freston, Ellen V. Futter, Robert Kraft, Alan Greenberg, Charles Phillips, Sumner Redstone (Chairman), Shari Redstone (non-executive Vice-Chair), Frederic Salerno, and William Schwartz.
Assets
This is a summary of the main Viacom divisions. For detailed assets see List of assets owned by Viacom.
- Film Production and Distribution: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, Republic Pictures
- Television Networks: MTV Networks (including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, VH1, CMT, Spike TV and others); BET
- Television Production and Television Distribution: DreamWorks Television
- Video Gaming: Sega of America
Footnote
^ Although Viacom was originally founded in 1971 (split from the original CBS Corporation), it was reincorporated in 1986, and the current Viacom was spun off (re-founded) from CBS Corporation (which is, formally, the 1986 Viacom renamed) on January 1 2006.
See also
External links
- Viacom website
- Ketupa.net - Viacom
- Viacom information by Hoover's
- Viacom profile by Yahoo!
- Split documentation - SEC filing on Form S-4 from October 5, 2005 describing the split.
| Viacom Inc. |
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Corporate Directors: George Abrams | Philippe Dauman | Thomas E. Dooley | Tom Freston | Ellen V. Futter | Robert Kraft | Alan Greenberg | Charles Phillips | Sumner Redstone | Shari Redstone | Frederic Salerno | William Schwartz |
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MTV Networks: CMT | Comedy Central | Logo | MTV | MTV2 | MTV En Español | MTV Networks Europe | MTV Networks Latin America | Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite/Nick Jr. | Noggin/The N | Spike TV | TV Land | VH1 | iFilm | Neopets | GameTrailers | NickToons Network | Nick GAS |
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Annual Revenue: $17.3 billion USD (Image:Green up.png10% 3Q 2005) | Employees: 38,350 | Stock Symbol: NYSE: VIAB | Website: www.viacom.com |
