The Redstone family’s privately-held National Amusements, which controls nearly 80 percent of the voting shares in both CBS and Viacom, sent a letter Thursday morning to the boards of the two entertainment companies telling them “to consider a potential combination of the companies.” First reported as forthcoming by Reuters on Wednesday afternoon, shares of both companies jumped on the news, with CBS closing the day up 4 percent, and Viacom rising 2.7 percent. (CBS was up again in early Thursday trading; this is contrary to the initial Wall Street wisdom that had a merger adding more value to the beaten down Viacom.) CBS […]
