Media Mega Mergers
A Timeline
· Jan. 3, 1986 - Capital Cities Communications Inc. purchases American Broadcasting Co. for $3.5 billion to create Capital Cities/ABC Inc.
· June 9, 1986 - General Electric Co. buys RCA Corp., parent company of National Broadcasting Co. and NBC television network for $6.4 billion. At the time, the deal was the largest non-oil acquisition in U.S. history.
· Nov. 7, 1989 - Sony Corp. buys film and television producer Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. for $3.4 billion.
· Jan. 10, 1990 - Warner Communications Inc. and Time Inc. complete $14.1 billion merger, creating world's biggest media conglomerate.
· Jan. 3, 1991 - Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. of Japan buys MCA Inc. for $6.9 billion.
· Sept. 31, 1993 - The New York Times Co. buys Affiliated Publications Inc., parent company of The Boston Globe, for $1.1 billion, the biggest take over in U.S. newspaper history.
· March 11, 1994 - Viacom acquires Blockbuster Video for $8.4 billion.
· July 7, 1994 - Viacom Inc. buys Paramount Communications Inc. for $10 billion after winning a bidding war against QVC Inc. to buy the movie, publishing and sports company.
· June 5, 1995 - Seagram Co. buys MCA Inc. from Matsushita for $5.7 billion and renames it Universal Studios.
· Nov. 24, 1995 - Westinghouse Electric Corp. buys CBS Inc. for $5.4 billion.
· Feb. 9, 1996 - Walt Disney Co. buys Capital Cities/ABC for $19 billion, creating a media conglomerate in movies, television and publishing.
· Oct. 11, 1996 - Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting System complete $7.6 billion merger.
· Dec.31, 1996 - Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s CBS unit buys Infinity Broadcasting Co. for $4.7 billion, combining two of the nation's biggest radio station operators.
· Dec. 1, 1997 - Westinghouse Electric Corp. changes name to CBS Inc. shortly after deciding to sell its traditional businesses such as power-generated equipment and light bulbs.
· Dec. 9, 1998 - CBS corp. raises $2.9 billion by selling a 17 percent stake in Infinity Broadcasting Corp., its radio and outdoor advertising business. The initial public offering of stock is the largest ever in the media industry.
· Dec. 10, 1998 - Seagram Co. buys the PolyGram music company for $10.4 billion.
· April 1, 1999 - CBS Corp. announces agreement to buy King World Productions Inc., the leading syndicator of television programs, for $2.5 billion.
· Sept. 7, 1999 - Viacom Inc. announces deal to buy CBS Corp. for $81.5 billion, one of the largest media deals in U.S. history.
· Oct. 4, 1999 - Clear Channel announces plans to take over the number two radio chain, AMFM, in a $23 billion deal.
· Jan. 10, 2000 - America Online agrees to buy Time Warner Inc. in $135 billion merger agreement, the largest-ever combination in the media industry.
· March 13, 2000 - Chicago Tribune publisher Tribune Co. agrees to buy Times Mirror Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times, for $6.5 billion.
· June 20, 2000 - Vivendi, Seagram and Canal+ merge, creating a fully integrated global media and communications company for the wired and wireless world.
· Oct. 28, 2001 - EchoStar attempts to become the dominant satellite television provider in the United States by announcing merger with DirectTV in a $25.8 billion deal. In 2002, the U.S. Justice Department successfully thwarted the merger.
· Nov. 3, 2000 - Viacom agrees to purchase BET in a deal valued at $3 billion.
· Dec. 17, 2001 - Vivendi Universal announces plans to acquire USA Networks in a deal valued at $10.3 billion.
· Dec. 19, 2001 - Comcast Corp.announces merger with AT&T's broadband unit in a deal valued at about $52 billion. The new company -- AT&T Comcast Corp. -- will have about 22.3 million subscribers.
· April 10, 2003 - News Corp. agrees to acquire control of Hughes Electronics, the parent company of DirecTV, in a $6.6 billion deal.
· Sept. 22, 2003 - Univision Communications' $3.2 billion purchase of Dallas-based Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. wins final approval from regulators, creating a company with the biggest U.S. Spanish-language television and radio networks.
· Oct. 8, 2003 - French media firm Vivendi Universal and U.S. conglomerate General Electric sign a final deal to combine GE's NBC television unit with Vivendi's Universal Studios and cable channels, creating a $43 billion entertainment powerhouse. The new company, to be called NBC Universal, will compete with entertainment giants such as Walt Disney Co. and Viacom Inc.
· Feb. 17, 2004 - Cingular Wireless agrees to buy AT&T Wireless Services Inc. for about $41 billion, topping a rival $38 billion bid from Vodafone of Britain, in a deal that would create the nation's biggest mobile phone company.
· August 6, 2004 - Sony Music Entertainment and Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) complete their merger, creating Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Sony BMG Music Entertainment will be 50 percent owned by Bertelsmann and 50 percent owned by Sony Corp. of America.
· Nov. 14, 2004 - Dow Jones & Company acquires MarketWatch, Inc., a leading provider of business news and financial information, for $519 million.
· Jan. 27, 2005 - SBC Communications Inc. announces plans to acquire AT&T in a deal worth $16 billion. The new company combines AT&T's national and global IP-based networks with SBC's local exchange, broadband and wireless assets. SBC says the merger creates a "premier, global provider for new era of communications."
· Feb. 17, 2005 - The New York Times Company announces agreement to acquire About, Inc., a leading online consumer information provider, from PRIMEDIA Inc. for $410 million.
· Feb. 14, 2005 - Telephone giant Verizon Communications agrees to acquire MCI for more than $6.7 billion, scuttling a competing bid for MCI by Qwest Communications.
· March 16, 2005 - Media giant Viacom announces plans to split into two public companies. One company would consist of the firm's cable networks — including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Showtime — and entertainment properties led by Paramount Pictures. The other company would control older assets, including CBS, the Infinity Radio unit and the firm's billboard business.
· April 8, 2005 - Cable giants Time Warner and Comcast Corp. reach agreement to buy bankrupt cable operator Adelphia Communications Corp. in a $17.6 billion deal.
· April 18, 2005 - Graphic software developer Adobe Systems Inc. agrees to buy multimedia software firm Macromedia Inc. for about $3.4 billion, in a move designed to extend its lead in the market for creating and distributing digital documents.
· May 12, 2005 – Rumors again reported in mainstream media about the possible merger of music giants EMI Group (UK) and Warner Music Group (USA). In 2000, the companies dropped plans for a proposed $20 billion merger in the face of European Union (EU) antitrust concerns.
· July 18, 2005 - Global media giant News Corp. agrees to acquire Intermix Media, Inc., owner of MySpace.com, for $580 million.
· August 12, 2005 - Sprint Corp. purchases Nextel Communications for $35 billion, creating the No. 3 U.S. wireless service. The new company is called Sprint Nextel Corporation.
· Sept. 8, 2005 - News Corporation acquires IGN Entertainment, Inc., a company specializing in digital entertainment and video games, for $650 million.
· Dec. 11, 2005 - Paramount Pictures agrees to buy independent film studio DreamWorks SKG Inc.for $1.6 billion. The agreement does not include DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.
· Jan. 24, 2006 -- Walt Disney announces that it will buy Pixar, the successful animation studio majority owned by Apple's Steve Jobs, for $7.4 billion.
· Jan. 25, 2006 - CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. Entertainment announce plans to merge the WB and UPN networks into a new broadcast entity called the the CW network. Each company will hold 50% interest in new network.
· Feb. 6, 2006 - Walt Disney agrees to turn its 22 radio stations and ABC Radio Networks over to Citadel Broadcasting in a deal valued at $2.7 billion.
· March 5, 2006 - AT&T Inc. agrees to buy BellSouth Corp. for $67 billion in a deal that further consolidates the telecommunications industry and would give AT&T total control of their joint venture, Cingular Wireless.
· March 6, 2006 - NBC Universal announces plans to acquire the female-oriented Web network iVillage in $600 million deal.
· March 14, 2006 - The McClatchy Co. agrees to buy 32 Knight Ridder Inc. newspapers in a $4.5 billion deal.
· April 24, 2006 - Viacom Inc. announces plans to buy Xfire, an online games technology company, for $102 million.
· Sept. 7, 2006 - Vivendi's Universal Music agrees to acquire BMG Music Publishing in a $2 billion deal. The acquisition will make Universal's music publishing holdings the largest in the world.
· Oct. 9, 2006 - Google, the Internet's leading search engine, announced that it is buying popular online video site YouTube for $1.65 billion.
SOURCE: Ball State University, "Foundations of Telecommunications"
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