Viacom's Split Begins Its Test With Wall Street

[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Matthew Karnitschnig matthew.karnitschnig@wsj.com]
While the split won't be formalized until year's end, shares in Viacom's offspring, one retaining the Viacom name and the other called CBS Corp., will start trading on a preliminary basis this morning. For most of the nine months since the idea of Viacom's division was unveiled in March, the split plan has looked like a loser. Viacom's stock lost 12% between March and October, as jittery investors questioned the future of mature, advertising-driven media businesses in an "on demand" universe of digital video recorders, iPods and Internet television. But the stock has rebounded of late highlighting the value of the company's main asset: content. CBS's willingness to offer some of its best shows on demand, despite concerns that such viewing could hurt the company's existing TV business, appeared to be aimed at combating the widespread perception that CBS is the ugly sibling of Viacom's two offspring. Viacom's businesses are being divided according to their expected growth rate: While the new Viacom has the sexy fast-growing cable networks and the Paramount film studio, the new CBS company will own slow-growing broadcast television, including the CBS network, and radio, which has been a weak performer for Viacom in recent years.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113375067299213812.html?mod=todays_us_money_and_investing
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* Moonves impresses with CBS vision
As Viacom’s split draws near, media executives and investors are increasingly talking less about the fast-growing MTV Networks and flashy Paramount film studio than about the prospects of New Viacom’s less glamorous sister, CBS.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/55457c40-651c-11da-8cff-0000779e2340.html
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