CBS, Viacom Merger to Close Dec. 4
November 25, 2019
CBS Corp. and Viacom have announced that their pending merger is expected to close after market hours on Dec. 4.
Immediately following the closing, the combined company will be renamed ViacomCBS Inc., and it is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Dec. 5 under the new ticker symbols “VIACA” and “VIAC,” according to the companies.
As part of the listing, ViacomCBS will also become eligible for future inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 index.
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Speaking last August with CNBC, Robert Bakish, current Viacom CEO and future head of ViacomCBS, said the combined media company would offer “unmatched scale” with 140,000 television catalog episodes and 3,600 movies, including content from Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios.
The broadcast network’s early move toward direct-to-consumer content distribution with CBS All Access and Showtime OTT and Viacom’s acquisition of ad-supported streaming service Pluto TV has well-positioned the new media company in the streaming video era, he said.
“[That’s] not something people have talked about a lot [regarding the merger],” he said. “You unite those two together and you really have a D-to-C ecosystem — very compelling — both with substantial, millions of users.”