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"Phillipe would enhance our growth and would be more aggressive and entrepreneurial and would never let anything end up in our competitor's camp" - Sumner Redstone on the outster of Tom Freston and the hiring of Philippe Dauman.
According to the NY Times, "Mr. Redstone was referring to Viacom's having been outbid for MySpace.com by the News Corporation, and his view that Viacom had failed to make progress in the digital media area.
I can hear the sounds of media bankers licking their chops.
Comments (5) | Posted September 6, 2006 in Venture Capital and Technology
Comments
Uh oh, do I sense an emerging sucker - 'er wait, I mean - acquirer for YouTube?
Posted by: Chris | Sep 6, 2006 10:43:20 AM
I have a great idea for Viacom. Viacom owns MTV, MTV2, VH1, and Nickelodeon among others.
I have a really simple idea that could make them a ton of money.
How about putting music videos on MTV and VH1. Each channel can play videos according to their target audience or niche. MTV just had the music video awards and the audience rating was terrible. How could they expect people to watch awards for videos no one has ever seen?
There is a new channel on cable we watch all the time at our house. It is called MyTube. They play videos all the time, and only videos. They play everything from Elvis to Green Day.
I think a way for Viacom to adapt to the reality genre is to create a reality network. This way they can put all their reality shows on one network and continue to produce tham and then they can have other reality shows on the same channel as well such as reruns of American Idol, the Ted Nugent reality show, Survivor re-runs, etc. They could corner the market on reality shows and bring back videos at the same time.
Ad revenue would sky rocket.
Posted by: Jim Eiden | Sep 6, 2006 11:05:06 AM
I love this image:
"Mr. Redstone’s disenchantment with the direction of Viacom had been bubbling under the surface for months, but the end for Mr. Freston came abruptly. Mr. Redstone invited him to his Beverly Hills home on Monday afternoon and in his library, amid an enormous collection of rare saltwater fish, lowered the boom."
It's like something out of a James Bond movie.
Posted by: Altay | Sep 6, 2006 12:37:19 PM
gosh, i hate to see myself saying this, but... tom freston is 60. sumner redstone is 80-something. the new head honchoes at viacom are in the 50s and 60s. but the business of viacom is, in the end, mtv and nickelodeon. two youth franchises that have to stay young to even remotely be competitive. so maybe youtube and myspace and the like are kicking viacoms butt because they are run by folks who can at least remember when they were in the mtv and nickelodeon demo?
Posted by: steve | Sep 6, 2006 12:38:30 PM
Are we talking about the same Redstone who buys systematically at the top of the cycle, splits CBS (value) and Viacom (growth) and forces the CBS cash cow to turn itself into a growth stock, thereby deflating the value of the group in style, and fires a guy 9-months into the job because he failed to spot what he himself could not spot ? Thank god for him his investors are very diversified and he holds 6%. Mr Chairman, firing your underlings is not a solution to your own lack of vision.
Posted by: Fred Destin | Sep 6, 2006 3:16:54 PM
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