Report: CBS eyes sale of theme parks
Company looks to sell unit that came from Viacom split and has $1.1B in revenue, newspaper says.


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - CBS is looking to sell its theme parks, which account for about $1.1 billion in annual sales, according to a published report.

The New York Times quotes CBS (Research) CEO Les Moonves as telling an analyst meeting Thursday that the business does not fit with CBS's content-driven business, which includes the television network, television and radio stations, an outdoor advertising business and a publishing business.

Paramount’s Carowinds in Charlotte, N.C., one of the theme parks CBS has put up for sale.
Paramount’s Carowinds in Charlotte, N.C., one of the theme parks CBS has put up for sale.

The theme parks unit, which became part of CBS when it was spun off of media conglomerate Viacom earlier this year, accounts for about 8 percent of the new company's revenue base.

The newspaper reports the sale of the parks unit has already generated interest.

Parks included in the unit include Paramount's Kings Island in Cincinnati; Paramount's Great America in Santa Clara, Calif.; Paramount's Kings Dominion, in Richmond, Va.; Paramount Canada's Wonderland in Toronto; Paramount's Carowinds in Charlotte, N.C.; and the Star Trek: The Experience attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton.

The Times reports that one analyst asked Moonves why the company isn't also trying to sell its publishing unit, Simon & Schuster, due to its lack of synergy with the company's other media holdings.

"To tell the truth, it is not the most synergistic group, but it is a content provider and we are working on different ways of using the books," the newspaper quotes him as responding.

The company announced plans earlier this week to create a new broadcast television network, the CW, in a joint venture with Time Warner (Research), combining content from its UPN network as well as Time Warner's WB network. CNNMoney.com is a unit of Time Warner.

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.