In the 1990s and early 2000s, there was a wave of major mergers and acquisitions in the media and entertainment industries. Viacom made several large acquisitions in the early 1990s including Paramount Communications. Disney purchased Capital Cities/ABC in 1995. Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting in 1995. Seagram purchased Universal Studios in 1995 and PolyGram in 1998. Westinghouse bought and later sold CBS. AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000 in a $128 billion deal. Comcast acquired AT&T's cable business in 2002. These deals were aimed at allowing companies to compete in an increasingly consolidated market across television, film, music, and cable industries.

1. Mergers and Takeovers
Jake Kemp

2. Viacom ‘94
• In 1986, Viacom was bought by movie theater
owner National Amusements, which brought
Sumner Redstone to the company. Redstone
retained the Viacom name and made a string
of large acquisitions in the early 1990s,
announcing plans to merge with Paramount
Communications (formerly Gulf+Western),
parent of Paramount Pictures for $8.5 billion,
in 1993, and buying the Blockbuster Video
chain in 1994 for $8 billion.

3. Disney ‘95
Walt Disney Co.'s purchased Capital Cities/ABC
Inc., a $19 billion. This gave Disney the pieces it
needed to compete in an increasingly crowded
industry. The addition of Capital Cities' television
and cable networks, such as ABC and ESPN,
supplied Disney with top-ranked news and
sports programming to go along with its world-
leading movie and theme park businesses.

4. Time Warner ‘95
• Time Warner set out to create another huge
merger with the purchase of the Turner
Broadcasting Company.

5. Seagram ‘95
• In 1995 Seagram bough Universal Studios for
5.7 billion until in 2000 when Vivendi bought
it back.

6. Westinghouse
• Westinghouse bought CBS; began selling off
other businesses. Westinghouse changed its
name to CBS Corporation; sold its non-nuclear
power generation unit to Siemens AG, which
operated it in the US under the name Siemens
Westinghouse Power Generation until 2005.

7. 1998 Seagram
• Seagram Co Ltd agreed to buy PolyGram NV
for $ 10.6 billion in a deal that makes the
Canadian drinks and entertainment company
number one in the world music industry with
accounts like U2 and Elton John. In India,
Polygram follows HMV in the music industry
pecking order, and is believed to have
recorded a turnover of Rs 50 crore last year.

8. 1999 Viacom
• Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. announced a
blockbuster $35.6 billion merger , a move
which is designed to bring the network of Dan
Rather in touch with the MTV generation.

9. 2000 Vivendi
• Vivendi bought Universal Studios off Seagram
for 35 billion therefor Seagram making a 30
billion profit.

10. 1998 AT&T
• AT&T bought Tele communications inc. for 48
billion dollars.

11. AOL 2000
• AOL bought and merged with Time warner for
$128 billion in 2000.

12. Comcast ‘02
• Comcast in 2002 bought AT&T for $47.5
billion.