CBS Corporation

*This article is about the post-2005 media conglomerate named CBS Corporation. For the holding company known as CBS Corporation from 1997 to 2000, see Westinghouse Electric Corporation. For this company's history before 2000 and the Viacom/CBS split, see Viacom (original) and CBS. For the company now known as Viacom, see Viacom.*

## CBS Corporation

### Traded as

NYSE: CBS.A (Class A)
NYSE: CBS (Class B
non-voting)
S&P 500 component (CBS)

### Fate

Sold to Verizon, Inc.; assets
divided between Verizon Media and Verizon Television

### Preceeded by

Westinghouse Electric
Corporation (1886-1997)
Viacom Inc. (2000-2005)

### Succeeded by

Verizon Media
(Digital media and publishing)
 Verizon Television
(US broadcasting and cable networks, and international channels)

### Founded

January 8, 1886 (Westinghouse Electric)
1997 (first era)
January 1, 2006 (relaunched as CBS Corporation)

### Headquarters

CBS Building
Manhattan, New York City,
New York, U.S.

### Area served

Worldwide, with main
operations in United States
and Australia

### Key people

Strauss Zelnick
(Interim Non-Executive Chairman)
Joseph Ianniello
(President and Acting CEO)

### Products

Movie production
TV production
Broadcasting
Cable television
Record label
Publishing
Internet

### Divisions

CBS Entertainment
CBS Cable Networks
CBS Publishing
CBS Local Broadcasting
CBS Experiences

### Subsidaries

CBS
CBS Interactive
CBS Records
CBS Sports Network
CBS Television Studios
CBS Television Distribution
CBS Studios International
CBS Films
Westinghouse Licensing
Showtime Networks
Simon & Schuster
Digital assets of TV Guide
The CW (50%)
Pop TV (50%)
*Full list of assets here*

### Website

www.cbscorporation.com

**CBS Corporation** was an American mass media corporation focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, controlled CBS by way of his majority ownership of the company's Class A voting stock; he also serves as Chairman Emeritus.

It was, at the time of closure, currently the world's fifth largest entertainment company in terms of revenue after The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal (which is owned by Comcast) and WarnerMedia (in which it is owned by AT&T and its subsidiary Warner Bros. owns half of The CW, formerly The WB and UPN). The company began trading on the NYSE on January 3, 2006. Until then, the corporation was known as Viacom, and is the legal successor to said company. A new company, keeping the Viacom name, was spun off from CBS. CBS, not Viacom, retains control of over-the-air television (CBS, CW) and radio broadcasting, TV production and distribution, publishing, pay-cable, basic cable (Pop), and recording formerly owned by the larger company. CBS had its headquarters in the CBS Building (colloquially called "Black Rock"), Midtown, Manhattan, New York City, United States.

On July 10, 2019, Verizon Communications announced a deal to acquire CBS along with Viacom for a total of $185.4 billion, which would in turn reunify CBS with its sister company’s former properties. The deal closed on April 14, 2020, and both companies were dissolved, its television properties were folded into Viacom’s media networks division to create Verizon Television, while the remaining assets were integrated into Verizon Media.

## Background

*Main article: Viacom (original)*
Viacom was created in 1971 as the television syndication division of CBS, and was spun off in 1971. However, in 1999, Viacom acquired its former parent, by this time also named CBS Corporation, formerly Westinghouse Electric. The prior CBS Corporation also owned CMT and The Nashville Network (now Paramount Network), which remained Viacom properties after the 2005 split, but the prior CBS did not own UPN, Showtime, Paramount Television, Paramount Parks, or Simon and Schuster.

## History

In March 2005, Viacom announced plans of looking into splitting the company into two publicly traded companies, amid issues of the stock price stagnating (although it was alleged that another main force behind the split was the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy, which led to MTV not being allowed to produce any more halftime shows, they had also produced the show for Super Bowl XXXV, the first Super Bowl CBS aired since regaining NFL rights and becoming MTV's corporate sibling).

On June 14, 2005, the Viacom Board of Directors approved the split of the company into two firms. The CBS Corporation name would be revived for one of the companies, to be headed by longtime television executive (and Viacom co-President) Leslie Moonves, and would include CBS, UPN, Infinity Broadcasting, Viacom Outdoor, Showtime Networks, and Paramount's television studio.

The split was structured such that the new Viacom was spun off from the old Viacom, which was renamed CBS Corporation. In a sense, this was a repeat of the 1971 spinoff. However, in this case, CBS retained virtually all of the prior firm's broadcast TV assets, including its various syndication companies.

With the split, the two new companies began trading on the NYSE on January 3, 2006. Investors anticipated Viacom benefiting from the split, but instead, it dropped approximately 20 percent, while CBS rose 9 percent.

Announced in January 2006, CBS and DIC Entertainment signed a multi-year deal in which DIC bought the Saturday morning airtime as "CBS's Saturday Morning Secret Slumber Party". In June 2006, DiC added a production partner AOL's KOL. Thus, this block would be called "KOL's Saturday Morning Secret Slumber Party on CBS".

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation, and Warner Bros. announced that they were to create a new broadcast network, The CW Television Network. The network officially debuted on September 18, 2006. The network formally debuted on September 20 with the 2 hour premiere of America's Next Top Model. The network is the result of a merger of The WB (a Warner Bros. holding) and UPN (a CBS Corporation holding). CBS Corporation and Time Warner each own 50% of the network. Tribune Broadcasting (which previously owned a 25% stake on The WB) and CBS Corporation will contribute its stations as new network affiliates.

Three days after the announcement of The CW, on January 27, CBS announced that it was selling its Paramount Parks division. On May 23, 2006, CBS Corporation sold Paramount Parks to the Cedar Fair Entertainment Company. With this acquisition, Cedar Fair became the third-largest theme park operator. On June 30, 2006, Cedar Fair announced that it has completed its acquisition of Paramount Parks from CBS Corporation in a cash transaction valued at US$1.24 billion. The transaction included a 10-year license that allowed Cedar Fair to use the Paramount name in the parks through the 2017 season.

On February 7, 2007, CBS announced it was selling seven stations in Providence, Rhode Island, Austin, Texas, Salt Lake City and West Palm Beach, Florida to Cerberus Capital Management for US$185 million. It sold another station, WFRV-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and its satellite station, WJMN-TV in Escanaba, Michigan, to Liberty Media on February 13, 2007. News reports estimate the deal at about US$234 million. CBS is swapping the stations and US$170 million in cash for 7.59 million shares of CBS common stock held by Liberty Media.

* **February 26**: CBS announced that it will invest in Electric Sheep, which is a virtual world content developer. CBS hired Electric Sheep to develop some projects, including the creation of "The L-Word in Second Life". CBS also shot a commercial within the virtual world Second Life so to promote its show *Two and a Half Men*. Another project that Electric Sheep is working on for CBS is a *Star Trek*-themed area in Second Life. By investing in Electric Sheep, CBS hopes to expand its activity "beyond the living room".
* **March 20**: CBS/CSTV announced it had acquired an online high school sports network, MaxPreps.
* **April 12**: CBS Corporation announces the creation of the CBS Interactive Audience Network.
* **May 30**: CBS Interactive announced that it had bought Last.fm for £140 million.

## Corporate governance

The board of directors of CBS Corporation include:

* Candace K. Beinecke
* Barbara M. Byrne
* Gary L. Countryman
* Brian Goldner
* Linda M. Griego
* Robert N. Klieger
* Martha L. Minow
* Shari Redstone (Vice-Chair)
* Sumner Redstone (Chairman emeritus)
* Susan Schuman
* Strauss Zelnick (Interim Chairman)

## See also

* CBS Corporation (1997), an old instance of the company, purchased by the old Viacom in 1999.
* CBS Television Stations, the holding company that assumes operation of CBS Corp.'s television stations.
* Concentration of media ownership and Media conglomerate
* MTV Networks/BET Networks, part of the new Viacom corporation.

## External links

* Official webstite

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