Stocks inched higher Friday morning as investors said good riddance to one of the worst years on record - but showed caution on the first trading day of the new year.
Time Warner Cable and Viacom worked Thursday to finalize details on an agreement that will allow TWC customers to continue to watch programming on Viacom's MTV Networks, said TWC president and CEO Glenn Britt.
Can you live without "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Hills"?
In April, Paramount Pictures walked away from a deal to air its movies on pay-TV channel Showtime. Instead, it announced a plan to start up a rival channel with two other longtime Showtime suppliers, MGM and Lionsgate. To the uninitiated, that might have appeared a nugget of passing interest, as in: Great, another movie channel ... I guess.
Viacom has agreed to let Google strip identifying information from YouTube viewers' data before complying with a judge's order to hand over the records as part of a copyright infringement lawsuit.
In a nod to privacy complaints, Viacom Inc. won't be told the identities of individuals who watch video clips on the popular video-sharing site YouTube
Does Viacom's mix of media businesses make the company recession-resistant?
Does Viacom's mix of media businesses make the company recession-resistant?
Stocks staged a late-session rally to finish modestly higher Friday, even as troubling news from the financial sector kept stocks in the red for most of the day.
Stocks were mostly lower in midday trade Friday as more troubling news from the financial sector kept stocks under pressure, offsetting a better-than-expected employment report.
Stocks inched higher Friday morning as investors said good riddance to one of the worst years on record - but showed caution on the first trading day of the new year.
Time Warner Cable and Viacom worked Thursday to finalize details on an agreement that will allow TWC customers to continue to watch programming on Viacom's MTV Networks, said TWC president and CEO Glenn Britt.
Can you live without "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Hills"?
In April, Paramount Pictures walked away from a deal to air its movies on pay-TV channel Showtime. Instead, it announced a plan to start up a rival channel with two other longtime Showtime suppliers, MGM and Lionsgate. To the uninitiated, that might have appeared a nugget of passing interest, as in: Great, another movie channel ... I guess.
Viacom has agreed to let Google strip identifying information from YouTube viewers' data before complying with a judge's order to hand over the records as part of a copyright infringement lawsuit.
In a nod to privacy complaints, Viacom Inc. won't be told the identities of individuals who watch video clips on the popular video-sharing site YouTube
Does Viacom's mix of media businesses make the company recession-resistant?
Does Viacom's mix of media businesses make the company recession-resistant?
Stocks staged a late-session rally to finish modestly higher Friday, even as troubling news from the financial sector kept stocks in the red for most of the day.
Stocks were mostly lower in midday trade Friday as more troubling news from the financial sector kept stocks under pressure, offsetting a better-than-expected employment report.
Stocks rebounded modestly Friday from one of its worst sessions of the year, as a better-than-expected employment report outweighed lingering credit market fears.
Will Sumner Redstone ever get over being bested by Rupert Murdoch in the bidding for MySpace two years ago? Maybe.
Viacom Inc. on Thursday posted a better-than-expected profit, boosted by DVD sales and the box office hit "Shrek The Third."
A fracture in the relationship between Sumner Redstone, the mercurial 84-year-old mogul who controls CBS and Viacom, and his daughter has become the latest drama within the House of Redstone, and how it plays out could decide the future control of one of the world's great media fortunes.
In the epic philosophical and financial battle between West Coast and East Coast, between software and old media, the East this week fired perhaps its biggest gun so far. Viacom filed a $1 billion-plus lawsuit against Google's YouTube, asserting "massive copyright infringement" as a result of YouTube airing hundreds of thousands of video clips taken from Viacom television programs like The Daily Show and South Park.
Viacom, with its lawsuit seeking more than $1 billion in damages from Google and YouTube, has shown that it's serious about copyright infringement.
Viacom sued Google and its online video subsidiary YouTube for $1 billion Tuesday, the first big lawsuit against the online video site and its parent for copyright infringement.
Media conglomerate Viacom is teaming up to provide content to new Web TV service Joost, the companies said Tuesday.
Most major media stocks bounced back sharply this year after a dismal 2005.
With apologies to the Buggles: it looks like video killed the dot-com media star.
Viacom's revolving door - goodbye, Toms Freston and Cruise! - places the media giant's large cast of powerful women in a particular spotlight: as stalwart survivors who keep the businesses going am...
In the early part of this decade, I spent a couple of years in and around MTV Networks, as its artist-in-residence, where my focus was the company's diversity initiative. Having spent my career backstage or onstage, I was new to the corporate world. I was struck by the MTV staff's enthusiasm for sharing ideas and hearing new ones. I also noticed that there was no archetype for success here; the wellsprings of creativity and management clearly had many different sources.
The new chief executive officer of Viacom told investors Tuesday that it is in the hunt for small acquisitions in order to boost its presence online.
Hey, Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts: If you're reading this, I've got some friendly advice for you.
Stocks gained some ground near midday Tuesday, finding momentum after a sleepy morning, thanks to falling oil prices and a rally in the tech and commodity sectors.
Media conglomerate Viacom said Tuesday president and CEO Tom Freston has resigned, a move that Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone said stemmed partly from frustration with Viacom's Internet strategy - and lagging stock price.
MTV turned 25 on Aug. 1. But investors in MTV's parent company are probably in no mood to celebrate.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - This year has been a better one for big media stocks than 2005. Of course, that's not saying much.
NEW YORK, April 24 (Reuters) - Viacom Inc. on Monday said it will buy Xfire, an online games technology company, for $102 million in a bid to dominate the youth market on the Internet as it has on television.
DEFINITIONS AND EXPLANATIONS
THE MEDIA INDUSTRY was shaped by moguls who wanted more of everything--more newspapers, more radio and TV stations, more studios, more power. The great empire builders included William Randolph Hea...
Say something in Farsi, Tom. "Dasterast is 'to the right,'" replies Tom Freston, the new chief executive of Viacom. "And dastechap is 'to the left.' Ruberu is 'straight ahead,'" he goes on.
Say something in Farsi, Tom. "Dasterast is 'to the right,'" replies Tom Freston, the new chief executive of Viacom. "And dastechap is 'to the left.' Ruberu is 'straight ahead,'" he goes on.
The highest compliment is to be admired by one's peers. So rising to the top of one of the 28 industry groups in the World's Most Admired Companies rankings is good reason to break out the champagn...
Leading media companies are undervalued nowadays, according to many market watchers. So it's not surprising that some analysts believe big media conglomerates should consider breaking up to realize their hidden value.
Viacom has done it. Carl Icahn wants Time Warner to do it. And some think it could make sense for Disney, Sony and General Electric to do it too.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Investors in beaten down media companies are about to find out if breaking up is the answer to the sector's woes.
There was a time when Wall Street treated the CEOs of the largest media companies almost like demigods.
Stocks were mixed Monday, with technology the most upbeat, as investors kept an eye on rising oil prices and Treasury bond yields, and geared up for Tuesday's Fed meeting.
Stocks advanced Monday morning, as investors welcomed a proposed $30 billion merger in the oil industry and Viacom's purchase of DreamWorks, and shrugged off the latest rise in oil prices.
THREE-YEAR-OLDS DON'T HAVE Disposable income. And when it comes to television, few of them channel-surf. Preschoolers, in other words, are not the audience you'd expect to be the focus of a cable T...
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The year is almost over...and it's not a moment too soon for major media companies.
It's true. There is a liberal bias when it comes to the media... many investors are biased against big media stocks this year and they have liberally sold their shares.
Media companies usually lust after young consumers.
Monday's Viacom purchase of Neopets, the hugely popular children's Web site that's a natural fit with the Nickelodeon brand and a natural digital platform for Nickelodeon's properties, is exactly the kind of "targeted acquisition" Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone promised in a press release last week when the company announced its plan to split in two.
Leslie Moonves, the co-president of Viacom Inc., said Monday that he thinks the media giant will split in two.
With chairman Sumner Redstone as its champion, a proposal to split Viacom in two seemed like a done deal.
It used to be that nothing could pry Sumner Redstone out of his office in New York City--except maybe a business dinner. Viacom's chairman and CEO literally had no home. He would arise at dawn in h...
Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone said Tuesday that plans to split the media conglomerate into two separate, publicly traded companies are moving forward and that he is "personally committed" to seeing it happen.
Les Moonves and Thomas Freston, the co-chief operating officers of media conglomerate Viacom, each saw their roughly $20 million in pay and bonus supplemented by tens of thousands of dollars for staying in their own homes.
Media conglomerate Viacom Inc. may be broken into at least two different publicly traded companies, separating its cable and film assets from its broadcast television and radio business, the company announced Wednesday.
This past year has been tough on the media conglomerate, and not just because of that wardrobe malfunction and the 60 Minutes Wednesday blowup over President Bush's National Guard records.
The box office was dominated over the long weekend by Coach Carter, which took in a hefty $29 million for Paramount Pictures and MTV, two divisions of Viacom. The film, based on actual events, is a story about a basketball coach who makes some tough calls to force his players to improve their academic grades.
Between the ongoing turmoil at CBS News and stiff fines for Janet Jackson's breast-baring incident, there was ample reason for Sumner Redstone to stick close to home this week.
Since taking over as lead manager of Thompson Plumb Growth fund from his father in 1998, John C. Thompson has minted a sterling record. His $1.3 billion portfolio is listed in this year's MONEY 100...
Howard Stern is looking expensive these days. His employer, Infinity Broadcasting Corp., is reportedly facing a whopping $1.5 million fine for an episode on Stern's morning radio program that included sexual references that government watchdogs say crossed the line.
Outgoing Viacom President Mel Karmazin is free to work for any of his former competitors. But they may have no need for his particular set of talents, analysts said, despite his strong reputation on Wall Street.
Is the show over for Howard Stern?
Mel Karmazin is leaving Viacom Inc., and Sumner Redstone, the boss he fought with, has given a deadline for his departure as well.
Suddenly, media stocks are at the center of a dealmaking frenzy. Comcast has made a run at Disney, Viacom is talking about acquiring a cable-TV company, and Time Warner (owner of this magazine) wan...
Suddenly, media stocks are at the center of a dealmaking frenzy.
Sumner Redstone, Viacom Inc.'s chairman and chief executive, doesn't like to admit mistakes. But he confessed to one this month: The media company shouldn't have abandoned plans it was studying two years ago for a cable network aimed at gays, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported.
Like a drawn out New Year's Day hangover, the first quarter hit the stock market hard.
Subscribers to the DISH satellite TV service may want their MTV -- but Tuesday more than 9 million of them couldn't get it, or other Viacom-owned TV channels, because of a contract dispute.
When the writers and editors of MONEY set out to find the best stocks for the upcoming year, we recalled a market that caught us by surprise in 2003. Remember SARS? Or how spooked you felt before t...
Growth is back. That's the inescapable conclusion of three of the very best growth-oriented money managers around: Thomas Marsico of Marsico Funds, Jim Oelschlager of Oak Associates and Richard Driehaus of Driehaus Capital Management.
Growth is back. That's the inescapable conclusion of three of the very best growth-oriented money managers around: Thomas Marsico of Marsico Funds, Jim Oelschlager of Oak Associates and Richard Dri...
Viacom
For evidence of the tensions at the top of Viacom, you only have to look at the contract that Mel Karmazin just signed, keeping him on as president and chief operating officer of the $24.6-billion-...
Back in January, our "Best Investments for 2002" featured eight stocks we thought could beat the market this year. So far, four of our stocks have done so. But it's been a tough eight months, with ...
There's the standard path to media moguldom (buy a network, amass a stable of magazines). Then there's the route the Decaux family took. Build a lot of bus shelters and self-cleaning public toilets...
When we sat down in November to begin our hunt for the best investments for 2002, we "lacked visibility" (to use Wall Street's current favorite phrase) about where the market was headed. Specifical...
Imagine sipping a martini, arranging day care, and reserving a taxi or airline flight--all while waiting to enter the 9 P.M. screening of Shrek. That's the idea behind the Bridge: Cinema De Lux (31...
Last December, some of the biggest names in the television business gathered in a brownstone on Manhattan's Upper East Side for Viacom's annual Christmas party. It was the company's first holiday c...
Admit it, you still have nightmares about the ones that got away. The Microsofts, the Ciscos, the Intels. They're the top holdings in your ultimate "coulda, woulda, shoulda" portfolio. Oh, what mig...
What makes a company worthless?
Just as No. 5 network UPN experiences a renaissance, regularly besting mini-rival the WB, co-owners Viacom and Chris-Craft wrangle over its fate. Frustrated by the negotiations, Viacom wants out; i...
At 76, Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone doesn't mind letting you know he's cool. Sure he watches MTV, Viacom's music video network; in fact, he says, just the other day Snoopy stopped by the Viacom build...
The Metropolitan Opera House in New York had never seen anything like it. When MTV gave out its 1999 Video Music Awards, Paul McCartney made a surprise appearance with Madonna, pop sensation Ricky ...
Why is it, exactly, that people have always underestimated Sumner Redstone? Could it be that he spent most of his life away from the media glare, running a not-very-glamorous chain of movie theater...
If you don't have kids under 15, chances are you won't know what to make of the tidal wave of publicity about to be unleashed for Rugrats, the movie version of Nickelodeon's top-rated cartoon TV sh...
All this spring along the Potomac, government lawyers and economists were trying to decide whether they should let News Corp. join forces with Time Warner and other cable operators to offer satelli...
VIACOM (VIAB); AMEX, $39.50; NO YIELD
THIS MONTH:
Mergers and takeovers are in fashion again. Within the past six months, Viacom snapped up Paramount for $10 billion, Northrop bought Grumman for $2.1 billion, Gerber agreed to be acquired by Sandoz...
Enough talking about the five-month takeover fight from hell in which Sumner Redstone's Viacom defeated Barry Diller's QVC for the right to pay too much for Paramount Communications. Now for the re...
A surge in mergers and acquisitions (see chart) has Wall Streeters digging out their yellow power ties. The revival became particularly festive as home shopping powerhouse QVC Network and cable gia...
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