Guide Note

Viacom is one of the largest media conglomerates in the United States. The company owns MTV Networks and Comedy Central, and has also merged with Paramount and CBS.

Fast Facts

1. Stock symbol: VIA, VIA.B (NYSE)
2. Annual revenue (2007): $13.4 billion
3. Founder: Sumner Redstone
4. Year established: 2006
5. Industry: TV, motion pictures
6. Phone: (212) 258-6000
7. HQ: New York, NY
8. Chairman: Sumner Redstone
9. President/CEO: Philippe Dauman
10. CFO: Thomas E. Dooley
11. Staff: 9,500
12. Owns Paramount Pictures
13. Owns multiple cable channels, including Comedy Central, MTV, and Nickelodeon

1. 1971: The former Viacom first goes public
2. 1986: Fully acquires MTV Networks
3. 1994: Merges with Paramount
4. 1999: Starts trading on NYSE
5. 2000: Merges with CBS
6. 2003: Fully acquires Comedy Central
7. December 31, 2005: Splits from CBS Corporation to form new Viacom, Inc.

Viacom Lawsuit Against Google

On March 13, 2007, Viacom filed a lawsuit against Google claiming that YouTube is violating copyrighted content, by allowing users to post videos on the site owned by the Viacom company. On July 1, 2008, a federal judge ruled that Google had to hand over to Viacom all YouTube view logs as part of the $1 billion dollar lawsuit against the service. The log will provide the login details of users, the IP address from the computer accessing the site, and which videos have been viewed.¹