CBS COO Says Entercom Deal Is 'Great Transaction'

During Wednesday's earnings call with financial analysts,  CBS COO Joseph R. Ianniello gave an update on the announced merger with Entercom.

According to Ianniello CBS expects the transaction to close during the second half of 2017.

He reiterated that CBS shareholders who participate in this split-off will own 72% of the combined company which will have best-in-class assets and will clearly be the best capitalized radio company in the industry.

"The combined Radio business will benefit from increased scale, stronger cash flow and real operational synergies which should drive higher profitability. The new company will also have the ability to pay an attractive dividend. This is a great transaction for CBS."

Ianniello added, "It will further diversify our revenue mix while also increasing our overall growth rates, and it will allow us to retire more shares of our stock through an exchange offer. Speaking of retiring shares, during the fourth quarter, we used some of the proceeds we received from the CBS Radio debt issuance to repurchase $1.5 billion of our stock, just as we told you we would."

CEO Les Moonves told analysts more people signed up for CBS All Access on the Sunday of the Grammys than any other day thus far in the streaming service’s more than two years of operations.