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Comcast, and Advance Publications. Redstone raised $1.8 billion from NYNEX and
acquired Blockbuster to receive a $1.25 billion investment and access to its cash flow. The
heads of these companies had no reason to bankroll bids that would not payoff. Yet their
level of enthusiasm rivaled Diller’s and Redstone’s. Even at the last round of bidding, both
BellSouth, which had invested $1.5 billion in QVC’s bid, and Bruce Wasserstein,
BellSouth’s investment banker, were disappointed when Diller decided not to match
Viacom’s collar. They too believed the market was too myopic to see the deal’s potential.
Within a few years of the merger, Viacom sold some Paramount assets for $7.5
billion and kept, in addition to Paramount’s movie studio, Paramount assets valued by
analysts at $4 billion. "Effectively," concluded Wasserstein in vindication, "Redstone got
the studio for free, proving his critics wrong.”
The Sequel
On the afternoon of Wednesday, January 17, 1996, Viacom’s chief executive
officer Frank Biondi called his wife, Carol. "‘I have good news and bad news,’ he said.
‘What’s the bad news?’ Carol Biondi asked. ‘We’re not going to China,’ he answered,
referring to a trip that was to have been part business and part pleasure. ‘The good news
is that I’m going to be able to try some new things, because I’m going to be leaving.
Sumner just walked in and said he wants to take my job.’" Biondi was, after all, serving at
the pleasure of Redstone.
114
acquired Blockbuster to receive a $1.25 billion investment and access to its cash flow. The
heads of these companies had no reason to bankroll bids that would not payoff. Yet their
level of enthusiasm rivaled Diller’s and Redstone’s. Even at the last round of bidding, both
BellSouth, which had invested $1.5 billion in QVC’s bid, and Bruce Wasserstein,
BellSouth’s investment banker, were disappointed when Diller decided not to match
Viacom’s collar. They too believed the market was too myopic to see the deal’s potential.
Within a few years of the merger, Viacom sold some Paramount assets for $7.5
billion and kept, in addition to Paramount’s movie studio, Paramount assets valued by
analysts at $4 billion. "Effectively," concluded Wasserstein in vindication, "Redstone got
the studio for free, proving his critics wrong.”
The Sequel
On the afternoon of Wednesday, January 17, 1996, Viacom’s chief executive
officer Frank Biondi called his wife, Carol. "‘I have good news and bad news,’ he said.
‘What’s the bad news?’ Carol Biondi asked. ‘We’re not going to China,’ he answered,
referring to a trip that was to have been part business and part pleasure. ‘The good news
is that I’m going to be able to try some new things, because I’m going to be leaving.
Sumner just walked in and said he wants to take my job.’" Biondi was, after all, serving at
the pleasure of Redstone.
114
