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ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish Takes a Conservative View on Further Mergers and Acquisitions

Viacom and CBS

The new CEO of ViacomCBS, Bob Bakish, says that the new company isn’t looking to go on a buying spree anytime soon.

According to a piece from The Hollywood Reporter, Bakish, who was speaking alongside CFO Christina Spade last week, feels that the CBS and Viacom merger is enough for now. He made his remarks in front of an audience at Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia conference in New York. He said, “We just did our transformational deal - there is no other deal in the market or that we see that we feel we have to do.”

Spade, who is the current CFO of CBS and will also be the CFO of the new combined company, backed up his remarks. She said, “As we think about how we spend our cash, highest and best use is to invest it back in our business.”

Back in August, when CBS announced they were merging with Viacom, one of the strategic pillars of the new business was to be to “accelerate the direct-to-consumer strategy”. This includes things like investing in streaming services, like CBS All Access, the home of Star Trek. Another part of the strategy will be to “create a leading producer and licensor of premium content to third-party platforms globally”, which is also something that they are already doing with Star Trek, by licensing it to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other services around the world.

The Hollywood Reporter does note that while Bakish and Spade don’t seem interested in outside acquisitions, they “would look at opportunities, like an ‘international cornerstone,’ or a strategic play that could bolster the company’s library.”