Media M&A May Soon Have Its Day

[Commentary] Media-industry merger and acquisition talk is picking up again. Investors have been assessing likely buyers and sellers.

The former are thought to include 21st Century Fox. Investors also speculate that Liberty Media Chairman John Malone may be trying to build a media giant, much as he has begun to do with cable via his investment in Charter Communications.

A possible acquisition target: CBS. Gaining control of CBS would require buying the 79.7% voting stake held by Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements. Redstone, who is 91 years old, hasn’t shown interest in a sale but control of that stake will pass to a trust after he dies. The trust is likely more open to a sale of CBS or its sister company Viacom. Other sellers could include smaller media companies such as AMC Networks,Scripps Networks Interactive or Madison Square Garden, which may be looking to combine forces or merge with a bigger company to gain more leverage in affiliate-fee negotiations. One possibility is that Viacom could sell its Paramount Pictures movie studio and merge its cable networks with one of these firms.