Shari Redstone is emphatic: ViacomCBS has plenty of resources and the scale to compete in the new world order for media giants.
“We absolutely have enough scale,” Redstone said Friday morning during her Q&A held as part of the Paley Center for Media’s International Council Summit in New York. “We have an incredible library. We have incredible IP. We spend over $13 billion on content. We can compete with the best of them.”
Redstone was pressed by moderator Aryeh Bourkoff, chief of LionTree investment bank, which was a key advisor on the Viacom-CBS merger, about the more than 20% drop in the stocks for CBS and Viacom since the long-awaited merger was completed in mid-August. The conventional wisdom on the Street is that investors believe the company isn’t big enough to remain a major player in global media.
“We not only have the scale, we have a track record of producing hits,” she said. “I think we’re in a very good position to compete going forward.”
More to come