WSJ: Viacom Mulls Buying Cable Operation
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Media company Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE:VIAB - news) Chief Executive Sumner Redstone said the company might seek to buy a cable-television operation, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
But Redstone said at an investor conference in Florida that no deals were "happening today," according to the story.
Viacom does not "need distribution for defensive purposes," but the time might come "where we could decide ... for the future growth of Viacom we could add more distribution, for example, cable systems," the story quoted Redstone as saying.
Redstone made it clear Viacom was not interested in acquiring satellite television service EchoStar Communications Corp. (Nasdaq
ISH - news), according to the story.
A dispute between Viacom and EchoStar over contract terms culminated with EchoStar removing Viacom's local and national channels from its service on Tuesday.
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