Viacom Inc. has confirmed a plan to break up into two separate companies.
Viacom, whose holdings include CBS, MTV and the Paramount movie studio, announced late Tuesday that its board had approved a plan originally announced in March to separate itself into a company centered on broadcast TV and another one built around cable networks.
The split is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2006 and will be made through a tax-free spinoff. The new company will keep the Viacom Inc. name, while the other company will be called CBS Corp.
