Latest in Merger

UPDATED with staff memo. Viacom and CBS shares perked up Wednesday, each rising more than 3% in their final day of trading as separate companies. The media companies’ all-stock merger took effect after the closing bell. Shares in ViacomCBS will begin trading Thursday morning on the Nasdaq. CBS stock closed at $40.68…

After years of stops and starts on the way to the altar, Viacom and CBS finally have a date for their corporate nuptials. The companies said they expect to close the all-stock transaction after the close of trading on December 4. On the next day, December 5, the companies will become a single entity, ViacomCBS Inc.…

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…

Nexstar said Thursday it has closed its acquisition of Tribune Media for $7.2 billion, including debt, vaulting to the position of No. 1 owner of local TV stations in the U.S. The deal caps a remarkable rise for a company that consisted of a single radio station barely a generation ago. Sinclair Broadcast Group had…

The integration process related to the merger of Viacom and CBS will be managed inside each organization by Viacom Chief Transformation Officer Jose Tolosa and CBS EVP, Strategic Planning and Development Gautam Ranji. In addition, the companies are forming an Integration Management Office (IMO). News of the IMO, the…

UPDATED with closing prices and additional details: Shares in Viacom and CBS both declined more than 8% Wednesday as investors absorbed the details of the companies’ long-awaited merger during a broader stock market retreat. CBS stock closed at $44.62, 8% lower, and Viacom at $26.72, down 8.5%. Worries about weak…

In a long-expected settlement, the Department of Justice has agreed to approve the $26 billion merger of No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. telecom providers T-Mobile and Sprint. As a condition of the approval, the combined entity has agreed to sell Sprint's Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Sprint-branded prepaid mobile services to D…

The attorneys general of seven states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit seeking to block the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile, alleging that the $26.5 billion deal would harm consumers. New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the suit Tuesday…

The White House has declined a request by two House Democrats for documents that could show whether President Donald Trump tried to block AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. White House counsel Pat Cipollone said in a letter dated Monday to Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and antitrust subcommittee…

UPDATED with official comment from the companies. At special meetings held simultaneously in New York this morning, Disney and 21st Century Fox shareholders overwhelmingly approved the merger first proposed last December. Disney said 99% of shareholders approved the company’s acquisition of Fox assets, a historic…

When AT&T first announced its intentions to acquire Time Warner back in October 2016, talk about premium-video-on-demand was all the rage. The format, which each studio had different pitches on, essentially called for streaming movies in the home roughly 17 days after their theatrical release at a price between…

Mere minutes after a federal judge today gave Donald Trump's Department of Justice a very public defeat and granted an unconditional OK to the $85 billion dollar marriage of AT&T and Time Warner, the conglomerate responded with circumspect joy. "We are pleased that, after conducting a full and fair trial on the…