From a WaPo (reg req’d) piece on media conglomerates and growth:
Topping Redstone’s shopping list are more cable television channels to add to the MTV/Nickelodeon empire, he said. He added that Viacom is “underinvested” in the Internet and will look for acquisitions there. “But not Yahoo or Google,” he said.
How sporting that Viacom, market cap of about $57 billion and no growth story, deigns not to “buy” Yahoo, market cap of $44 billion, or Google, market cap $49 billion, both living smack in the middle of the fastest growing sector of the media business. Jesus. If only Time Warner had deigned not to “buy” AOL.
Of course, the new MTV company will have an even smaller cap than the combined entity, once it splits off from the CBS-Infinity company.
Hey, if my memory of the dark ages of the Internet is correct, it was AOL, the arrogant new-media company, that bought Time Warner, then ran its stock into the ground. (Not that I don’t agree about Redstone…)
The big issue for Viacom is simple – they missed the boat. They had an opportunity to buy Yahoo during the downturn in 02/03 and missed it. So now they overpay for half the benefit – maybe we’ll see them counter IAC’s bid on AskJeeves….
John, you missed this other howler in the piece:
Compared with others, GE was a latecomer to the media mega-mergers and has so far not made an Internet investment
Hello? What about NBCi? MSNBC.com?