Viacom: History

In March 2005, Viacom (now known as CBS) made plans to divide the company into two different companies. There were two reasons for this:

1) The company was dealing with a decline in their share price
2) Rivalry between Leslie Moonves and Tom Freston, (longtime heads of NOW CBS and MTV Networks) was creating conflict at work.

This is what happened to the company:

After the departure of Mel Karmazin in 2004, Redstone, who served as chairman, decided to split the offices between Moonves and Freston.

Moonves - The original Viacom changed its name to CBS Corporation. It now includes Viacom's "slow growth businesses", namely The CW , CBS Radio, Simon & Schuster, CBS Outdoor, Showtime, CBS Records, CBS Paramount Television and most television production assets.

Freston - A new company, the present Viacom, was created. It is comprised of MTV Networks, BET Networks, Paramount's movie studio, and Paramount Pictures' home entertainment operations. These businesses are categorised as the "high-growth businesses" (MTV Networks and BET Networks in particular). By splitting into different companies, Viacom is able to infuse capital from these "high growth" business allowing future expansion.

Sumner Redstone still controls 71% of the voting stock of both companies and is the chairman of both companies.

2005:

*Neopets - virtual pet website
*Paramount and Dreamworks

2006:

*Atom entertainment
*Global Broadcast news to form Viacom 18(JV) -India