Eat The Press

Viacom Looks For A Cheap Web Hookup

Bloomberg |  via NYPost |  Posted Wednesday September 20, 2006 at 12:21 PM

New Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman has given a hint about what the future of the company holds at his first public presentation since his Sept.5th appointment, saying that Viacom is looking to "smallish" online acquisitions to buttress its Internet business. For Viacom, "smallish" includes companies that cost less than $100 million (where does The Onion fit in there? Daily Candy's valued at $130 million; College Humor at $20 million. Not that we know anything about Viacom and The Onion).

The pressure is on Dauman to deliver, since slap-happy Sumner Redstone will be watching him — and Viacom's recently-declining stock — like a hawk. The mogul doesn't want to have to wait the 30 more years he's planning to be around in order to see online results, especially after his obvious disappointment in losing out on MySpace and what he saw as the disappointing results of MTV online.