Paramount Global, traded and commonly known as Paramount, was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square, Midtown Manhattan. It was formed on December 4, 2019, as ViacomCBS, through the merger of the second incarnations of Viacom and CBS Corporation, which were split from the original Viacom in 2005. On February 16, 2022, ViacomCBS was renamed to Paramount.
Paramount's main properties included the namesake Paramount Pictures Corporation, the CBS Entertainment Group (consisting of the CBS television network and television stations as well as The CW and other CBS-branded assets), the BET Media Group (which oversees BET and its sister channels), Paramount Media Networks (consisting of locally-based cable television networks including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, CMT, Paramount Network and Showtime) and Paramount Streaming (including Paramount+ and Pluto TV). It also had an international division that manages international versions of its cable networks, as well as region-specific assets including Argentina's Telefe, Chile's Chilevisión, the United Kingdom's 5 and Australia's Network 10. From 2011 to 2023, the division also owned a 30% stake in Rainbow S.p.A. of Italy. It also operated over 170 networks and reaches approximately 700 million subscribers in 180 countries.
On July 2, 2024, Skydance Media announced a three-way merger between it, Paramount, and National Amusements, to form Paramount Skydance. On July 24, the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger, which was closed on August 7.
Background
Paramount Pictures, CBS and Viacom each had a history of being associated with one another through a series of various corporate mergers and splits. Paramount Pictures was founded in 1912 as the Famous Players Film Company. CBS was founded in 1927, which Paramount Pictures held a 49% ownership stake in from 1929 to 1932. In 1952, CBS formed CBS Television Film Sales, a division which handled syndication rights for CBS's library of network-owned television series. This division was renamed CBS Films in 1958, again renamed CBS Enterprises in January 1968, and finally renamed Viacom (an acronym of Video and Audio Communications) in 1970. In 1971, this syndication division was spun off amid new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules forbidding television networks from owning syndication companies (these rules were eventually abolished completely in 1993). In 1986, Viacom purchased MTV Networks and Showtime/The Movie Channel Inc. from Warner Communications and American Express. In 1987, Viacom was acquired by theater operator company National Amusements.
Paramount Communications (1989–1994) and Viacom Inc. and CBS Corporation (1994–2005)
Meanwhile, Paramount Pictures was acquired by Gulf and Western Industries in 1966, which then re-branded itself as Paramount Communications in 1989. Viacom then purchased Paramount Communications in 1994. In 1999, Viacom made its biggest acquisition to date by announcing plans to merge with its former parent CBS Corporation (the renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation, which had merged with CBS in 1995). The merger was completed in 2000, resulting in CBS reuniting with its former syndication division.
Viacom Inc. and CBS Corporation (2005–2019)
On December 31, 2005, Viacom was split into two companies: the second incarnation of CBS Corporation, the former's corporate successor, and the second incarnation of Viacom, which was formed as a spin-off.
History
Formation On September 29, 2016, National Amusements wrote to its in-control subsidiaries, Viacom and CBS Corporation, encouraging a merger. On December 12, the deal was called off.
On January 12, 2018, CNBC reported that Viacom had re-entered talks to merge back into CBS Corporation, after the merger of AT&T and Time Warner and Disney's then-proposed acquisition of most of 21st Century Fox's assets were announced. Viacom and CBS Corporation also faced heavy competition from companies such as Netflix and Amazon. Shortly afterward, it was reported that the combined company could be a suitor for acquiring the media company Lionsgate (now Starz Entertainment). Viacom and Lionsgate were both interested in acquiring The Weinstein Company (TWC). Following the Weinstein effect, Viacom was listed as one of 22 potential buyers that were interested in acquiring TWC. They lost the bid, and on March 1, 2018, it was announced that Maria Contreras-Sweet would acquire all of TWC's assets for $500 million. Lantern Capital would later acquire the studio.
On March 30, 2018, CBS Corporation made an all-stock offer slightly below Viacom's market value, insisting that its existing leadership, including long-time chairman and CEO Les Moonves, oversee the re-combined company. Viacom rejected the offer as too low, requesting a $2.8 billion increase and that Bob Bakish be maintained as president and COO under Moonves. These conflicts had resulted from Shari Redstone seeking more control over CBS Corporation and its leadership.
Eventually, on May 14, 2018, CBS Corporation sued its and Viacom's parent company National Amusements and accused Redstone of abusing her voting power in the company and forcing a merger that was not supported by it or Viacom. CBS Corporation also accused Redstone of discouraging Verizon Communications from acquiring it, which could have been beneficial to its shareholders.
On May 23, 2018, Les Moonves explained that he considered the Viacom channels to be an "albatross," and while he favored more content for CBS All Access (now Paramount+), he believed that there were better deals for CBS Corporation than the Viacom deal, such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate, or Sony Pictures. Moonves also considered Bakish a threat because he did not want an ally of Shari Redstone as a board member of the combined company.
On September 9, 2018, Les Moonves exited CBS Corporation following multiple accusations of sexual assault. National Amusements agreed to not propose a CBS Corporation-Viacom merger for at least two years after the date of the settlement.
On May 30, 2019, CNBC reported that CBS Corporation and Viacom would explore merger discussions in mid-June 2019. CBS Corporation's board of directors was revamped with people who were open to merging; the re-merger was made possible with the resignation of Moonves, who had opposed all merger attempts. The talks had started following rumors of CBS Corporation acquiring Starz from Lionsgate. Reports said that CBS Corporation and Viacom reportedly set August 8 as an informal deadline for reaching an agreement to recombine the two media companies. CBS Corporation announced its plans to acquire Viacom as part of the re-merger deal for up to $15.4 billion.
On August 2, 2019, it was reported that CBS Corporation and Viacom agreed to merge back into one entity, with both companies agreeing on the management team for the merger. Bob Bakish would serve as CEO of the combined company with the president and acting CEO of CBS Corporation, Joseph Ianniello, overseeing CBS Corporation-branded assets. On August 7, 2019, CBS and Viacom separately reported their quarterly earnings as the talks about the re-merger continued.
Initial operations
On August 13, 2019, CBS and Viacom officially announced their merger; the combined company was to be named ViacomCBS, with Shari Redstone serving as chair. Upon the merger agreement, Viacom and CBS jointly announced that the transaction is expected to close by the end of 2019, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals. The merger required approval by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
On October 28, 2019, the merger was approved by National Amusements, which then announced the deal would close in early December; the recombined company trades its shares on Nasdaq under the symbols "VIAC" and "VIACA" after CBS Corporation delisted its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
On November 25, 2019, Viacom and CBS announced the merger would close on December 4 and begin trading on NASDAQ on the next day. On December 4, 2019, Bakish confirmed that the ViacomCBS merger had closed.
On December 10, 2019, days after the merger, Bakish announced that ViacomCBS would look to divest Black Rock, the building that held CBS's headquarters since 1964. He stated, "Black Rock is not an asset we need to own and we believe that money would be put to better use elsewhere." On December 20, 2019, ViacomCBS agreed to acquire a 49% minority stake in the film studio Miramax from beIN Media Group for $379 million. As part of the purchase, Paramount Pictures reached a long-term deal for exclusive distribution rights to its library, and first-look agreements to co-develop new film and television projects based on Miramax-owned properties.
On March 2, 2020, executive vice president Dana McClintock announced that he would depart the company after 27 years in CBS Communications. On March 4, the company announced plans to potentially sell its Simon & Schuster publishing unit, with Bakish arguing that it lacked a "significant connection for our broader business".
On June 19, 2020, Jaime Ondarza, formerly the senior vice president of Turner Broadcasting South Europe and Africa, became the new head of ViacomCBS Networks International for France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Middle East, Greece, and Turkey. On August 4, 2020, ViacomCBS announced that the company's connected video advertising platform, EyeQ, is set to launch in fall 2020.
On September 14, 2020, ViacomCBS announced an agreement to sell the CBSi-owned CNET Media Group to Red Ventures for $500 million. The deal included the eponymous CNET tech site, as well as ZDNet, GameSpot, the TV Guide digital assets, Metacritic, and Chowhound. The deal closed on October 30, 2020.
On November 17, 2020, various news outlets reported that companies such as Vivendi, Bertelsmann's Penguin Random House and News Corp's HarperCollins had considered acquiring Simon & Schuster for as much as $1.7 billion. ViacomCBS had expected the bids to be placed before November 26. On November 25, 2020, Penguin Random House agreed to purchase Simon & Schuster for $2.175 billion; however, the deal was blocked two years later by U.S. federal judge Florence Y. Pan. On August 16, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that it had agreed to sell the CBS Building to the real estate investment and management firm Harbor Group International for $760 million, leasing the space back under a short-term lease. On September 28, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that it had agreed to partner with software and data firm VideoAmp. On October 28, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that it had agreed to acquire a majority stake in the Spanish-language content producer TeleColombia & Estudios TeleMexico. On November 30, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that it had agreed to sell the CBS Studio Center to Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management for $1.85 billion.
On January 5, 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported that ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia (whose then-owner AT&T was selling it to Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery) were exploring a possible sale of either a majority stake or all of The CW, and that Nexstar Media Group was considered a leading bidder. Reports indicated that ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia could include a contractual commitment that would require any new owner to buy new programming from those companies, allowing them to reap some continual revenue through the network. Then-network president/CEO Mark Pedowitz confirmed talks of a potential sale in a memo to CW staffers, but added that "It's too early to speculate what might happen."
Rebranding to Paramount