CBS and Viacom agree to reunite in a merger deal worth $12 billion

Los Angeles Times

The merger puts CBS under the same umbrella with MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land and other Viacom cable channels for the first time since 2006. "CBS, which is the larger of the two companies and worth $18.5 billion, will absorb the smaller Viacom, which owns such assets as MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central and the Paramount Pictures movie studio in Hollywood," reports the Los Angeles Times. "The new company will be called ViacomCBS Inc., in a nod to the legacy of Sumner Redstone, the ailing 96-year-old media titan who built an empire from a small chain of drive-in movie theaters in the Northeast." ALSO: The merger brings together Cheers, South Park, Star Trek, SpongeBob SquarePants, Taxi, Mork & Mindy and The Brady Bunch.