No Weather in Viacom’s Future
CEO Philippe Dauman: No Big Acquisitions for ‘Foreseeable Future’
By Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/29/2008 12:23:00 PM
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman squashed any speculation that the media giant would be among the bidders for The Weather Channel, telling the audience at an investor conference in New York that Viacom will concentrate on growing its existing properties.
“I think we have a lot of opportunities to grow the networks we have and look at opportunities where others are not looking,” Dauman said at the Sanford C. Bernstein Strategic Decisions conference Wednesday. “We do look at the cable networks. We’re not interested in The Weather Channel. Scripps is not yet available for sale; we’ll look at it like everyone else. I have a feeling that everyone will be looking at that property. We’re not going to chase it.”
Financial Times reported Thursday that a consortium that includes NBC Universal and private equity firms Bain Capital and Blackstone is expected to bid $3 billion-$4 billion for TWC.
