Shares of Viacom (VIAB) - Get Report rose nearly 6% on Thursday after a report said the media company's board was looking to kick off merger talks with CBS (CBS) - Get Report as early as next month.
Citing sources close to the discussions, CNBC on Thursday reported that CBS's board is looking to begin talks with Viacom in mid-June. The two companies have not yet held discussions, CNBC said.
The discussions come amid other media companies including Walt Disney
(DIS) - Get Report
and AT&T
(T) - Get Report
joining forces to tap and expand their content libraries and compete with the likes of Netflix
(NFLX) - Get Report
and Amazon's
(AMZN) - Get Report
Prime Video service.
Reuters had reported in May that Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF.A) also offered to sell cable channel Starz to CBS for $5.5 billion after rebuffing a lower offer.
CBS and Viacom are controlled by National Amusements, which is owned by the Redstone family.
Shares of Viacom were up 5.87%, or $1.63, at $29.38 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Shares of CBS also rose on Thursday, gaining 3.6%, or $1.68, to $48.38 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Viacom is expected to report quarterly earnings of 81 cents a share on sales of $3.1 billion, based on a FactSet survey of 23 analysts. In the same period a year ago, the company posted earnings of 92 cents a share on sales of $3.1 billion.
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