Formation On September 29, 2016,
National Amusements wrote to its in-control subsidiaries, Viacom and CBS Corporation, encouraging a merger. On December 12, the deal was called off. On January 12, 2018,
CNBC reported that Viacom had re-entered talks to merge back into CBS Corporation, after the merger of
AT&T and
Time Warner and
Disney's
then-proposed acquisition of most of
21st Century Fox's assets were announced. Viacom and CBS Corporation also faced heavy competition from companies such as
Netflix and
Amazon. Shortly afterward, it was reported that the combined company could be a suitor for acquiring the media company Lionsgate (
now Starz Entertainment) . Viacom and Lionsgate were both interested in acquiring
The Weinstein Company (TWC). Following the
Weinstein effect, Viacom was listed as one of 22 potential buyers that were interested in acquiring TWC. Lantern Capital would later acquire the studio. On March 30, 2018, CBS Corporation made an all-stock offer slightly below Viacom's market value, insisting that its existing leadership, including long-time chairman and CEO
Les Moonves, oversee the re-combined company. Viacom rejected the offer as too low, requesting a $2.8 billion increase and that
Bob Bakish be maintained as president and COO under Moonves. These conflicts had resulted from
Shari Redstone seeking more control over CBS Corporation and its leadership. Eventually, on May 14, 2018, CBS Corporation sued its and Viacom's parent company National Amusements and accused Redstone of abusing her voting power in the company and
forcing a merger that was not supported by it or Viacom. CBS Corporation also accused Redstone of discouraging
Verizon Communications from acquiring it, which could have been beneficial to its shareholders. On May 23, 2018, Les Moonves explained that he considered the Viacom channels to be an "
albatross," and while he favored more content for
CBS All Access (now Paramount+), he believed that there were better deals for CBS Corporation than the Viacom deal, such as
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Lionsgate, or
Sony Pictures. Moonves also considered Bakish a threat because he did not want an ally of Shari Redstone as a board member of the combined company. On September 9, 2018, Les Moonves exited CBS Corporation following multiple accusations of sexual assault. National Amusements agreed to not propose a CBS Corporation-Viacom merger for at least two years after the date of the settlement. On May 30, 2019, CNBC reported that CBS Corporation and Viacom would explore merger discussions in mid-June 2019. CBS Corporation's board of directors was revamped with people who were open to merging; the re-merger was made possible with the resignation of Moonves, who had opposed all merger attempts. The talks had started following rumors of CBS Corporation acquiring
Starz from Lionsgate. Reports said that CBS Corporation and Viacom reportedly set August 8 as an informal deadline for reaching an agreement to recombine the two media companies. CBS Corporation announced its plans to acquire Viacom as part of the re-merger deal for up to $15.4 billion. On August 2, 2019, it was reported that CBS Corporation and Viacom agreed to merge back into one entity, with both companies agreeing on the management team for the merger. Bob Bakish would serve as CEO of the combined company with the president and acting CEO of CBS Corporation,
Joseph Ianniello, overseeing CBS Corporation-branded assets. On August 7, 2019, CBS and Viacom separately reported their quarterly earnings as the talks about the re-merger continued.
Initial operations On August 13, 2019, CBS and Viacom officially announced their merger; the combined company was to be named ViacomCBS, with Shari Redstone serving as chair. Upon the merger agreement, Viacom and CBS jointly announced that the transaction is expected to close by the end of 2019, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals. On November 25, 2019, Viacom and CBS announced the merger would close on December 4 and begin trading on NASDAQ on the next day. On December 10, 2019, days after the merger, Bakish announced that ViacomCBS would look to divest
Black Rock, the building that held CBS's headquarters since 1964. He stated, "Black Rock is not an asset we need to own and we believe that money would be put to better use elsewhere." On December 20, 2019, ViacomCBS agreed to acquire a 49% minority stake in the film studio
Miramax from
beIN Media Group for $379 million. As part of the purchase,
Paramount Pictures reached a long-term deal for exclusive distribution rights to its library, and
first-look agreements to co-develop new film and television projects based on Miramax-owned properties. On March 2, 2020, executive vice president Dana McClintock announced that he would depart the company after 27 years in CBS Communications. On March 4, the company announced plans to potentially sell its
Simon & Schuster publishing unit, with Bakish arguing that it lacked a "significant connection for our broader business". On June 19, 2020, Jaime Ondarza, formerly the senior vice president of
Turner Broadcasting South Europe and Africa, became the new head of ViacomCBS Networks International for France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Middle East, Greece, and Turkey. On August 4, 2020, ViacomCBS announced that the company's connected video advertising platform, EyeQ, is set to launch in fall 2020. On September 14, 2020, ViacomCBS announced an agreement to sell the CBSi-owned
CNET Media Group to
Red Ventures for $500 million. The deal included the eponymous CNET tech site, as well as
ZDNet,
GameSpot, the
TV Guide digital assets,
Metacritic, and
Chowhound. The deal closed on October 30, 2020. On November 17, 2020, various news outlets reported that companies such as
Vivendi,
Bertelsmann's
Penguin Random House and
News Corp's
HarperCollins had considered acquiring
Simon & Schuster for as much as $1.7 billion. ViacomCBS had expected the bids to be placed before November 26. On November 25, 2020, Penguin Random House agreed to purchase Simon & Schuster for $2.175 billion; however, the deal was blocked two years later by U.S. federal judge
Florence Y. Pan. On August 16, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that it had agreed to sell the
CBS Building to the real estate investment and management firm Harbor Group International for $760 million, leasing the space back under a short-term lease. On September 28, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that it had agreed to partner with software and data firm
VideoAmp. On October 28, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that it had agreed to acquire a majority stake in the Spanish-language content producer
TeleColombia & Estudios TeleMexico. On November 30, 2021, ViacomCBS announced that it had agreed to sell the
CBS Studio Center to Hackman Capital Partners and Square Mile Capital Management for $1.85 billion. On January 5, 2022,
The Wall Street Journal reported that ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia (whose then-owner AT&T was selling it to
Discovery to form
Warner Bros. Discovery) were exploring a possible sale of either a majority stake or all of
The CW, and that
Nexstar Media Group was considered a leading bidder. Reports indicated that ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia could include a contractual commitment that would require any new owner to buy new programming from those companies, allowing them to reap some continual revenue through the network. Then-network president/CEO
Mark Pedowitz confirmed talks of a potential sale in a memo to CW staffers, but added that "It's too early to speculate what might happen."
Rebranding to Paramount On February 15, 2022, during a presentation to investors, ViacomCBS announced that it would change its name to Paramount Global beginning the following day; in a memo to staff announcing the change, it was stated that the rebranding was intended to leverage the "iconic global name", and would "reflect who we are, what we aspire to be, and all that we stand for". The company primarily does business as simply "Paramount". Following the rename, Paramount Pictures' website URL changed from paramount.com to paramountpictures.com, while Paramount took the paramount.com URL. Nexstar announced on August 15 that it would acquire a 75% majority share in The CW; the remaining 25% would be shared equally by Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. As the deal did not require any regulatory approvals (unlike the
"Big Four" networks, which includes CBS, The CW had previously never owned or controlled its own stations outside of its
network service for smaller markets), Nexstar immediately took operational control of the network on the same day. The deal was closed on October 3, with CEO Mark Pedowitz stepping down and Dennis Miller taking Pedowitz's role as president of The CW. Paramount's CBS News and Stations unit announced on May 5, 2023, that its eight CW stations would become independent on September 1, per the Nexstar buyout deal. On August 7, Paramount announced that it had agreed to sell Simon & Schuster to private equity firm
KKR for $1.6 billion in cash. The sale was completed on October 30.
Merger with Skydance Media On December 20, 2023, it was reported by
Axios and
The New York Times that
David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, had met with Bob Bakish and had discussed a possible merger. Spokespeople for the two companies stated that the talks were preliminary and may not result in a deal, while
Fox Business reported via internal sources that Zaslav was "not in deal mode". On January 10, 2024, National Amusements was reported to be considering a deal or merger regarding Paramount Global, with
Skydance Media considering an all-cash bid of $2.5 billion for the earlier company. During this time, Paramount announced it would be laying off 800 employees. On February 27, 2024, CNBC reported that Warner Bros. Discovery halted the merger talks with Paramount. On April 2, 2024, Paramount and National Amusements approached Skydance for an exclusive acquisition window agreement. Shari Redstone and
David Ellison sought a three-way transaction between the companies. On April 18, it was reported that Sony Pictures was interested in acquiring Paramount Global through a joint buyout with Apollo. On April 29, 2024, Bob Bakish stepped down from his role as president and CEO. He was replaced by an office of the CEO, led by
Brian Robbins, George Cheeks and
Chris McCarthy.
The Los Angeles Times characterized this as an ouster by Redstone due to Bakish's reported opposition of the Skydance deal. McCarthy was legally designated the company's "interim principal executive officer" in order to comply with
SEC regulations stipulating that one person must conduct "the normal course of business". On May 2, Sony and Apollo submitted a non-binding offer to Paramount for a $26 billion all-cash offer, with terms unclear at that point. Skydance's exclusive negotiation window ended on May 3, 2024 and was not renewed, although the company was still interested in buying Paramount. The following day, Paramount's board members met, considering a "go-shop" approach for other such offers; it was ultimately decided that they would begin negotiations regarding Sony and Apollo's offer while still holding non-exclusive talks with Skydance. That same day, Berkshire Hathaway's
Warren Buffett stated in an annual meeting that he had sold all of his shares in Paramount at a substantial loss. By May 17, Sony and Apollo signed
non-disclosure agreements allowing them to investigate Paramount's private financial information, further progressing their bid. However, at that time, the companies were reportedly backing away from their all-cash offer and were re-thinking their approach to a deal for the company's assets. In late May, Skydance would revise its offer to acquire National Amusements, paying $2.25 billion and stipulating that Paramount's shareholders would receive $4.5 billion in cash, with the company taking $1.5 billion in debt reduction funds, which
The Wall Street Journal reported an independent committee representing Paramount had ultimately recommended. However, at that point, Redstone's National Amusements had not formally approved the deal. Redstone was reportedly displeased with the revised terms, as she would now received less money for her shares and Skydance wanted Redstone to assume legal liabilities in the case of shareholders lawsuits unhappy with the deal. She considered a sale of her company to another bidder, with such names as writer and producer
Steven Paul, businessman
Edgar Bronfman Jr.,
Bain Capital,
Patrón Tequila founder
John Paul DeJoria and businessman
Barry Diller in the running. On June 11, National Amusements announced it had failed to reach an agreement with Skydance to acquire Paramount. By July 2, 2024, Skydance renegotiated the deal and reached a preliminary agreement to acquire National Amusements and merge with Paramount. Also, Paramount reportedly entered talks for a sale of the
BET Media Group to buyers led by BET CEO
Scott Mills for $1.6–$1.7 billion. On July 7, 2024, Paramount's board approved the deal to merge with Skydance. Under the final deal, which has an enterprise value of $28 billion, Ellison would be appointed as chairman and CEO of what is currently being called "New Paramount" and former NBCUniversal CEO
Jeff Shell would become company president. Before finalization, Paramount Global would retain a 45-day window to shop for matching or superior offers from other bidders. Redstone will receive $2.4 billion for her share in National Amusements. If Paramount were to find a better offer, Skydance would be entitled to a $400 million breakup fee payout from the company. Skydance's executive team supported the potential sale of several Paramount assets which were deemed "not strategic" to its plans, including BET and others. In August 2024, Paramount announced it would lay off 15% of its U.S. workforce, amounting to about 2,000 employees. The cuts came as a result of a $6 billion write-down on its cable television networks. This included the shutdown of
Paramount Television Studios. The following month, Paramount sold Vidcon to UK firm
Informa. In November 2024, it was reported that Shari Redstone would leave Paramount Global after the company completed its planned merger with Skydance Media. As previously announced, the merged entity will see David Ellison, founder of Skydance Media, assume the roles of chairman and CEO, while Jeff Shell, former CEO of
NBCUniversal, will become president. In July 2025, the company agreed to pay a $16 million payment to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump alleging deceptive editing of its October 2024
60 Minutes interview with his
Democratic rival, Kamala Harris. A few weeks later, on July 15, the
Late Show host,
Stephen Colbert, called the $16 million payment "a big fat bribe" to Trump. Three days later, Paramount announced the cancellation of
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, although later reporting indicated that Colbert's talent manager had been informed of the cancellation on June 27. The Writers Guild of America East and West has called for NY attorney general
Letitia James to look into wrongdoing at Paramount as a result, specifically investigating whether "The Late Show’s cancelation is a bribe, sacrificing free speech to curry favor with the Trump Administration as the company looks for merger approval". ==Company units==