Gayle King Helps Ring Opening Bell at Nasdaq in Celebration of Yesterday’s ViacomCBS Merger

By A.J. Katz 

Newly formed ViacomCBS celebrated its merger by ringing the opening bell at the Nasdaq today, and who better to participate in the ceremony than one of the on-air faces of the new company: Gayle King.

Joining the CBS This Morning co-host, a mix of CBS and Viacom personalities: CBS The Late Show host Stephen Colbert, CBS Sports analyst (and Showtime Inside the NFL co-host) Phil Simms, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show host Trevor Noah, and Nickelodeon legend SpongeBob SquarePants.

New ViacomCBS president and CEO Bob Bakish, and ViacomCBS chairman Shari Redstone stood front and center.

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As we noted yesterday, the all-stock merger between the companies—announced back in August after 3 years of on-again, off-again talks—has been completed, the result being ViacomCBS Inc., which, reportedly will now have more than $28 billion in revenue and 4.3 billion cumulative TV subscribers around the globe.

The new ViacomCBS portfolio is extensive: A broadcast network (CBS), a premium cable network (Showtime), a movie studio (Paramount), a number of basic cable networks (including, MTV, Nickelodeon, Pop TV, Paramount Network, BET, VH1, TV Land, and CMT), a number of streaming services (including CBSN, CBS All Access, Pluto TV, and BET+) and a book publisher (Simon & Schuster).

CBSN–CBS News’ 24/7 streaming service–the platform was recently added to Viacom’s streaming service, Pluto. Aside from that, it doesn’t appear as though this merger will change anything on the CBS News front. At least not in the short term.

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