Viacom and CBS have officially merged, poising them to take on Netflix and Disney
CBS and Viacom are officially back together.
The media giants, which parted ways more than a decade ago, announced Wednesday that their merger is official, creating a new company that will be called ViacomCBS.
The merger will bring Paramount Pictures, the CBS broadcast network, and pay TV channels such as Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon – and premium channel Showtime – under one roof.
“This is a historic moment that brings together two iconic companies to form one of the world’s most important content producers and providers,” Bob Bakish, president and CEO of the newly combined company, said in a statement. “Through the combination of CBS’s and Viacom’s complementary assets, capabilities and talented teams, ViacomCBS will create and deliver premium content for its own platforms.''
ViacomCBS says the combined company's content accounts for about 22% of U.S. television viewing. And at a time when streaming services like Netflix and Amazon are pouring millions into award winning programming, ViacomCBS says that it will be able to streamline costs and "sustain significant investment in programming and innovation.''
CBS and Viacom said in August that they had reached a deal to become one, in an all-stock merger that would create a company with more than $28 billion in revenue.
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The two companies split in 2005, but fourteen years later found themselves in a dramatically changed media environment that industry watchers said made teaming up again a prudent move.
But the new company with a market cap of about $20 billion, according to Bloomberg, will still pale in size to giants like Disney, which has a market value approaching $245 billion, and Netflix, valued at $136 billion.
Follow Charisse Jones on Twitter @charissejones
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: CBS and Viacom are back together and ready to take on Netflix, Disney
