Viacom

NEW YORK -- Viacom Inc., owner of the MTV cable channel, and CBS Corp., a radio and TV broadcaster, are expected to combine their estimated $1.5 billion of Internet sites into a separately traded company, analysts said yesterday.Before Tuesday's announcement that Viacom will buy CBS for $37.7 billion in stock and debt, both companies were focused on developing Internet sites stamped with their respective brands. And both had suggested that they would sell shares of their Internet assets to the public.

NEW YORK -- Viacom Inc. said yesterday that it would acquire CBS Inc. for $37.3 billion, a deal that is the biggest media merger yet and would create the world's second-largest media company after Time Warner Inc.For Viacom and its 76-year-old chairman, Sumner Redstone, who will run the combined companies if the merger is completed, the deal adds a major broadcast television network, 15 CBS-owned television stations and the nation's biggest group of radio...

Eighteen years after the passage of sweeping legislation to clean up the worst of the nation's toxic waste dumps, much of the job remains undone. American companies will have to spend billions of dollars in coming years to decontaminate the most polluted Superfund sites. But that is not at all obvious from scouring the companies' annual financial reports and filings.Many companies, including General Electric and Viacom, only hint at their obligations in their filings and annual reports, leaving the people who invest in their stocks, live near their properties and work in their factories in the dark about when they plan to make amends - and how much they expect to spend.

Confounding Wall Street yet again with unexpected bad news, Viacom Inc. said yesterday that earnings for its Blockbuster Entertainment unit would be far below analyst expectations for the second quarter and for the full year.The company said that cash flow would plummet as much as 72 percent to $40 million to $50 million from the $143 million posted for the second quarter of last year. Viacom also said it was taking a writedown of $300 million for overstocked items and to close some stores.

NEW YORK -- Viacom Inc. said yesterday that it plans to sell stock in its Blockbuster Entertainment Group to pay off debt and announced that Bill Fields resigned after a year as chairman of the struggling unit.Viacom, which bought Blockbuster from H. Wayne Huizenga for $8.4 billion in 1994, plans the stock sale as Blockbuster's troubles deepen.The unit's first-quarter cash flow will drop 15 percent to 20 percent on slow video rentals, the parent company said.Some investors said the new stock won't fix Viacom's problems.

NEW YORK -- Viacom Inc. said yesterday that it has scaled back the number of Blockbuster video stores it plans to open this year to 600 from 800, prompting speculation that the company may be considering spinning off the struggling video retailer.Viacom said it cut back on store construction to reduce its debt, which totals about $9.5 billion in bonds, commercial paper and bank loans.Viacom also owns Paramount Pictures and television networks, including MTV.While Viacom has said it hopes to boost its earnings and share price by trimming its debt, the company's must ultimately move toward spinning off Blockbuster if the stock is to return to its former heights, analysts said.

The U.S.'s largest entertainment companies are expected to have higher fourth-quarter cash flow, buoyed by box-office successes such as "First Wives Club" and gains in cable programming.Cash flow at Time Warner Inc., Walt Disney Co. and Viacom Inc. will rise by double digits in the quarter, analysts said. Cash flow, a measure of financial performance for debt-heavy companies, is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.One of the biggest gainers will be New York-based Viacom, whose cash flow is expected to rise 25 percent to $554 million from $444 million, benefiting from the success of "First Wives Club" and "Star Trek: First Contact," two analysts said.

NEW YORK -- Viacom Inc. is looking for a buyer for its majority stake in Spelling Entertainment Group Inc., producer of television hits such as "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Melrose Place."Viacom, which is seeking to shed assets and reduce debt, values Los Angeles-based Spelling at as much as $2 billion, said an investment banker familiar with Viacom's pricing strategy. Based on today's stock price, Spelling's market value is about $1.06 billion.The investment banker said candidates to buy Spelling include Westinghouse Electric Corp.

There is very little that is real about MTV's "The Real World," which returns for its fourth season tonight at 10.The young adults brought together for the twentysomething soap opera live for free in a fabulous house in an absolutely fabulous city. They are starting dream careers as models, singers, race car drivers, musicians and writers. And the incredible narcissism that most of them exhibit is stroked and celebrated by the MTV cameras (in real life, if would more likely send them straight into clinical depression)

Senate vote kills Viacom planThe U.S. Senate approved by a voice vote yesterday legislation that effectively kills Viacom Inc.'s plans to sell its cable television systems to a black businessman for $2.3 billion.Viacom has said it won't proceed with the cable sale to investor Frank Washington if Congress terminates a Federal Communications Commission program that provides tax breaks to firms that sell media properties to minority buyers. With the FCC certificate, Viacom would receive a tax break estimated between $440 million and $640 million.