Sony $SNE Might Buy $VIAC. Here's Why:I wouldn't be surprised if Sony now decides to scoop up ViacomCBS to scale up their film and TV production capabilities. Plus, Sony Pictures doesn't have a lot of IPs in their collection aside from Marvel (Spider-Man and MIB), Jumanji, Bad Boys, etc. thus they could tap into the extensive ViacomCBS libraries to capitalize with franchises like Star Trek, Mission Impossible, Nickelodeon's library, Garfield, TMNT, Hasbro Cinematic Universe (which includes Power Rangers), Sonic the Hedgehog, and Terminator, etc. Plus, Sony would be able to catch up in attaining near the same amount of assets Disney, AT&T, and Comcast has to use to compete against tech studios in the Streaming Wars. They would own the technology powering CBS, Showtime All Access, and Pluto TV through buying ViacomCBS and could easily retool them into an all-in-one streaming service like HBO Max. The ViacomCBS networks provide Sony with back-up outlets when licencors could stab them in the back by cancelling or don't even pick up their shows (Netflix canceling Sony's One Day at a Time show and ViacomCBS's Pop channel reviving it is one example) and Sony (known for Breaking Bad, The Crown, etc.) would also be another in-house producer of content for these networks and the services. Plus, the Sony CEO said last year that the entertainment assets are a priority on two separate occasions and a EVP was hired in 2018 to focus on M&A deals. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/06/business/media/sony-movies-television-ces-playstation.html https://variety.com/2019/film/news/sony-ceo-sony-pictures-entertainment-strategy-1203222123/ In return, a way for Sony to start paying off the debt from buying ViacomCBS is to sell to Disney: -all the Marvel rights (maybe even Men In Black since it's some way a Marvel IP) including distribution rights of all Sony Marvel productions in film and TV so far, -rights to Muppet movies that Disney doesn't have like Muppets Take Manhattan, Muppet's From Space, and Kermit's Swamp Years, -Paramount's distribution rights of MCU Phase 1 films, the first 4 Indiana Jones films, and the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Nickelodeon's run of Doug episodes before the rest was produced by Disney, and maybe also Stuart Little if Sony's not up to rebooting that. Regarding tech companies being possible suitors of ViacomCBS alongside Sony, currently Amazon and Apple alongside Facebook and Google are still in the middle of antitrust investigations from the DOJ and FTC at the moment and going to be widely scrutinized by the public towards this year's election so I don't know if it would likely help them get through purchases. There's also the case of Verizon being a potential buyer of entertainment assets but they're out of the media game now that the current CEO of Verizon is focused on building out the core businesses, including 5G home internet creation. The only media assets so far that they have own is Oath (AOL & Yahoo) and they've basically regretted buying them and getting into the media business overall to the fact that they've had to write them off as a loss of $4.6 billion. Verizon is probably going to be out of the game especially since they can profit more by racing to build out the next phase of internet connectivity. This is why I see Sony being the one buying ViacomCBS from the Redstones to scale up for the Streaming Wars.Source: user lowell