01.03.2006 CBS CORPORATION BEGINS TRADING AS STAND ALONE PUBLIC COMPANY
The CBS Corporation began formal trading on the New York Stock Exchange today under the NYSE ticker symbol CBS and CBS.A. The company, one of the most diversified corporations in media today, with interests in broadcast and cable television, radio, publishing, digital media, outdoor advertising and theme parks, became a publicly traded company this morning after Viacom Inc. separated its businesses into two companies, one of which is the CBS Corporation. Leslie Moonves, President and CEO of the new company, marked the occasion by ringing the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange floor this morning."We're pleased to once again offer shareholders an opportunity to own a piece of the CBS Corporation," said Moonves. "We are very excited about the possibilities that lie ahead as we launch our new company, with content and distribution that rival any in media today. The CBS name has always stood for quality, integrity and innovation, and it?s those principles that will continue to guide us. I'm very confident that our unparalleled collection of businesses will continue to grow in their present form, as well as the many new platforms that are making a splash on the new media landscape."Detailed information on the CBS Corporation, its businesses, executives and financial information can be accessed on the company's new corporate site, www.cbscorporation.com.CBS began trading on the NYSE in 1937. It ended trading as a public company on May 4, 2000, when its merger with Viacom was completed and it began trading under the Viacom ticker.CBS Corporation is a mass media company with constituent parts that reach back to the beginnings of the broadcast industry, as well as newer businesses that operate on the leading edge of the media industry. The Company, through its many and varied operations, combines broad reach with well-positioned local businesses, all of which provide it with an extensive distribution network by which it serves audiences and advertisers in all 50 states and key international markets. It has operations in virtually every field of media and entertainment, including broadcast television (CBS and UPN), cable television (Showtime), local television (CBS Television Stations), television production and syndication (Paramount Television and King World), radio (CBS Radio), advertising on out-of-home media (CBS Outdoor), publishing (Simon & Schuster), theme parks (Paramount Parks), digital media (CBS Digital Media Group and CSTV Networks, transaction pending) and consumer products (CBS Consumer Products). For more information, log on to www.cbscorporation.com.
The CBS "eye"
Logo of the new Viacom.

The new CBS Corporation began trading on the New York Stock Exchange once again on January 3 after officially finishing its split with Viacom two days earlier. The split had been in the works since around March 2005 when Viacom announced it was breaking into two publicly traded companies due to stock price stagnation. 

In June 2005, Viacom's board approved the split and saying the CBS Corporation name would be revived for one of those companies. One of these units would receive most of Viacom's broadcasting and mass-media portion of subsidiaries (CBS, UPN, Infinity Broadcasting, now CBS Radio) along with Viacom Outdoor (now CBS Outdoor), Showtime Networks, and Paramount's television studio and a few other operations and announced long-time excutive Leslie Moonves would head that new company.

The split is filled with twists and turns. Viacom was founded in 1971 as CBS' television syndication division and was spun off in 1973. Westinghouse Electric Corporation bought CBS and changed its name to CBS Corporation. In a ironic twist, Viacom accquired their parent company in 1999 and CBS' stock symbol was de-listed as it became a division of Viacom. Ironically, the new CBS Corporation is actually the original Viacom. A new Viacom was founded and spun off containing MTV Networks (which contains CMT and Spike TV, two cable networks originally owned by CBS) along with BET, Paramount's film studio and home entertainment divisions, online virtual pet game Neopets, and a music publisher. It also partially owns Sega of America along with the Sonic the Hedgehog trademarks and is currently in the process of acquiring DreamWorks.

CBS unveiled its logo, the iconic CBS eye, and launched the corporation's official wesbite,  cbscorporation.com