Viacom CEO Says Company ‘Absolutely’ Doesn’t Need CBS Deal
Viacom CEO Says Company ‘Absolutely’ Doesn’t Need CBS Deal
(Bloomberg) -- Viacom Inc., which agreed this week to buy the online video network Pluto TV for $340 million, “absolutely” doesn’t need to merge with CBS Corp. to prosper, Chief Executive Officer Bob Bakish said.
“We cemented our turnaround in ’18,” Bakish, who’s led Viacom for two years, said on Bloomberg Television. “We’re now leaning hard into the evolution of our company, growing our opportunity.”
Controlled by Shari Redstone, Viacom has been under pressure to combine with CBS, the other half of her family’s media empire. CBS’s board is expected to consider a possible tie-up at a meeting later this month. Viacom, the owner of cable channels like Nickelodeon and the Paramount Pictures movie studio, has stressed it has opportunities of its own.
CBS and Viacom were one entity until 2006, when the Redstone family decided investors would give them greater value as separate companies. That strategy faltered, and there’s been on-and-off-again efforts to recombine them in recent years.
“We’re in the third round of the CBS narrative,” Bakish said.
With two-thirds of its revenue coming from cable TV advertising and fees, Viacom has been vulnerable to cord cutting as consumers drop traditional cable and satellite services. But the company is expected to report a second straight quarter of sales growth when results are announced in early February.
Pluto TV, with 100 channels and thousands of hours of content on-demand, will help continue that momentum, Bakish said.
“We’ve bought this company, which is unique in the marketplace,” he said. “It’s right in the steep part of its growth curve, adding 3 million active users in the last couple months, and it’s something that we see having tremendous synergies going forward.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Rob Golum in Los Angeles at rgolum@bloomberg.net;Vonnie Quinn in New York at vquinn@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.