Viacom

Viacom, Inc.

Viacom's headquarters at One Astor Plaza in New York City in May 2010
Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: VIAB NASDAQ: VIA NASDAQ-100 Component S&P 500 Component
Industry	Mass media
Predecessor	Viacom (original) Gulf+Western
Founded	May 3, 1971; 45 years ago (1971-05-03) (original) December 31, 2005; 11 years ago (2005-12-31) (current format)
Headquarters	One Astor Plaza Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Sumner M. Redstone (Chairman Emeritus) Thomas J. May (Chairman) Robert Bakish (President and CEO)
Products	Cable television, broadcasting, radio, publishing, movies, and web portals
Revenue	US$ 13.794 billion (2013) US$ 13.887 billion (2012)
Operating income	US$ 3.836 billion (2013) US$ 3.901 billion (2012)
Profit	US$ 2.395 billion (2013) US$ 1.981 billion (2012)
Total assets	US$ 23.829 billion (2013) US$ 22.25 billion (2012)
Total equity	US$ 5.19 billion (2013) US$ 7.439 billion (2012)
Owner	National Amusements (80%)
Number of employees	10,580 (2011)
Divisions	Viacom Media Networks Viacom International Media Networks
Subsidiaries	BET Networks Paramount Pictures Corporation Viacom International Viacom 18 (50% in a joint venture with Network 18) Rainbow S.r.l. (30%) Defy Media (7%)
Website	www.viacom.com

Viacom, Inc. (known simply as Viacom) /ˈvaɪəkɒm/ VY-ə-kom is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in cinema and cable television. It is currently the world's sixth largest broadcasting and cable company in terms of revenue, behind Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox and CBS Corporation, respectively. Voting control of Viacom is held by National Amusements, Inc., a privately owned theater company controlled by the billionaire Sumner Redstone. Redstone also holds via National Amusements a controlling stake in CBS Corporation.

The current incarnation of Viacom was created on December 31, 2005 as a spin-off from the original incarnation of Viacom, which was renamed as CBS Corporation after the spin-off. CBS Corporation currently retains control of the over-the-air broadcasting, TV production, subscription pay television (with Showtime Networks) and publishing assets (with Simon & Schuster), which were previously owned by the original Viacom. Predecessor firms of the original Viacom included Gulf+Western (which later became Paramount Communications) and Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Comprising BET Networks, Viacom Media Networks and Paramount Pictures, the current Viacom operates approximately 170 networks, reaching approximately 700 million subscribers in approximately 160 countries.