Latest in Mergers and Acquisitions

CBS delivered a mixed set of third-quarter results, with earnings per share of 95 cents on an adjusted basis exceeding Wall Street analysts’ consensus forecast by two cents. Revenue grew just 1% to $3.3 billion, which did not clear the $3.37 billion bar set by analysts. It is expected to be the final quarter of…

It was a week filled with wheeling and dealing, as new pacts to build, merge, spin-off and create were announced by real-world and digital entities. There was also a pause to remember Robert Freeman, who photographed some of the early and influential Beatles albums. This week in music: BMG BUILDS OUT LA PRESENCE: BMG…

Vice Media CEO Nancy Dubuc discussed the misconceptions about and momentum of the company as it navigates a restructuring and the acquisition of Refinery29. Appearing at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival in New York on Tuesday, Dubuc delivered her first public comments on the $400 million Refinery merger since it clos…

Fox Corp. has bought three TV stations from Nexstar, the top U.S. owner of local stations, in a $350 million transactions that will give the company a position in 14 of the top DMAs. Under the deal, Fox has also agreed to sell Nexstar two stations in Charlotte, NC: Fox affiliate WJZY and MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYT…

Vice Media Group has announced the closing of its Refinery29 acquisition and changes to its top management team. The Vice-Refinery deal, worth a reported $400 million, is one of several examples lately of consolidation in the digital media sector, as Facebook and Google continue to pose a stiff challenge in the…

Jim Lanzone, who has led CBS Interactive since 2011, will step down at the end of 2019, with longtime lieutenant Mark DeBevoise succeeding him in the top job. Lanzone will become an executive-in-residence at Benchmark Capital. The management shuffle comes about a month before Viacom and CBS complete their long-awaited…

Asked in a BBC radio interview about whether Disney has pumped out too many Marvel and Star Wars films over too short a timespan, CEO Bob Iger reaffirmed plans for a Star Wars slowdown. While Marvel is “doing sensationally well,” the Star Wars pipeline is getting a closer look, Iger said during a wide-ranging…

UPDATED with further staff departures: Deadspin, the formerly Gawker-owned sports-website that has become a case study in the management of digital news assets, saw its news flow go dry for nearly 24 hours as writer Drew Magary joined a mass editorial exodus on Thursday. By Friday morning, the entire staff was gone…

AT&T’s advertising unit, Xandr, has acquired Clypd, a TV advertising platform for broadcast and cable TV networks. Terms of the transaction were not revealed, and the company did not include any comments in its press release announcing the deal, citing the quiet period prior to AT&T’s quarterly earnings release on…

Viacom and CBS said the merged company’s dual-class shares will trade on the Nasdaq. In parallel SEC filings, the companies amended their merger agreement from August, saying that when their merger closes, the combined company’s shares will trade under the ticker symbols VIACA and VIAC. National Amusements controls…

Fox Corp. said it has closed its $265 million purchase of a majority stake in financial technology startup Credible Labs, which has been publicly traded in Australia. The deal, which was announced last summer, will see Fox own 67% of the company, with a pledge of $75 million in additional financing for its future…

Viacom and CBS have appointed Doretha “DeDe” Lea as EVP Global Public Policy and Government Relations of ViacomCBS, a position that will become effective when the pending merger of the companies is closed. As the top lobbyist for the soon-to-be-merged company, Lea will report to CEO Bob Bakish. The $30 billion…