We'll have to wait...CBS (CBS, $48.96) and Viacom(VIA, $34.23) not ready to announce merger as yet

CBS and Viacom are reportedly not yet ready to announce a merger – atleast not by Thursday when CBS reports its quarterly earnings.

According to a CNBC report, sources familiar with matter indicated that the media giants are still deliberating/negotiating on the exchange ratio for the merger. Speculations are rife that a deal could be announced in the coming days.

Shari Redstone, vice chairwoman of the board at CBS and Viacom, has suggested for a deal that boosts the combined company’s position in the media market and allow it to compete better with tech behemoths (including Amazon and Apple) for entertainment and sports rights, like the National Football League.  CBS currently owns NFL broadcast rights until 2022 – it is apparently determined to do what it takes to renew them.

The merger, if goes through, is expected to see Viacom CEO Bob Bakish take over as CEO of the combined company, according to sources (as mentioned by CNBC). 

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Sergey Savastiouk|Expert

Sergey Savastiouk, Ph.D. has a degree in Applied Mathematics from Moscow University and has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, investor, manager, and mathematician. His professional expertise is in applied mathematics, mathematical modeling, system and pattern analysis, and software and hardware system integration. He has served as the CEO of several hi-tech start-up companies and nonprofit organizations, which has given him proven capabilities in business strategy for high-tech start-up companies, market assessment, company formation, team building, product development, marketing, and sales. He has published numerous articles in journals and magazines on related fields. As a retail investor, he spent 15 years developing his proprietary trading and quantitative algorithms (now Tickeron’s A.I.), which brought him significant returns in trading the stock market. His current work and goal in founding Tickeron is to bring professional, sophisticated stock market analysis capabilities to retail investors via an easy-to-use interface.