LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of Viacom and CBS Corp, has withdrawn its support for a merger of the two companies.
In a letter transmitted to the respective boards, National Amusements said that after careful assessment and meetings with the leadership of both companies, it has concluded that "this is not the right time to merge the companies".

"Following the management changes that the Viacom Board put in place, we have been very impressed with the forward‐looking thinking and strategic plan being pursued under Bob Bakish's leadership.

"We know Viacom has tremendous assets that are currently undervalued, and we are confident that with this new strong management team, the value of these assets can be unleashed. At the same time, CBS continues to perform exceptionally well under Les Moonves, and we have every reason to believe that momentum will continue on a stand‐alone basis."

National Amusements had announced back in September that it had asked the boards of both companies to consider a potential combination.

It said at the time that a merger might offer "substantial synergies that would allow the combined company to respond even more aggressively and effectively to the challenges of the changing entertainment and media landscape".

At 1450 GMT, Viacom shares were down 5.6% to $36.45 and CBS shares were down 2.7% to $60.93.

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