BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JANUARY 10, 2000 ISSUE
COVER STORY Viacompatible KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS Doubled earnings at CBS, to $1 billion, on revenue of $8.6 billion Arranged the $80 billion merger of CBS with Viacom The Henny Youngman of media moguls, MEL KARMAZIN is predictably deadpan about being singled out as a top executive in his field. ''That sounds depressing,'' he says. ''Has the industry dropped that low?'' But the 56-year-old CEO of CBS Corp. (CBS) has clearly had a banner year. For one thing, there were the combined $11 billion acquisitions of billboard advertising company Outdoor Systems and TV-show syndicator King World Productions. Then there was the turnaround at the CBS television network and rapid growth of radio business Infinity Broadcasting. Even better, CBS stock has doubled this year, to about 60. But the real showstopper is Karmazin's merger of CBS with Viacom (VIA.B) in a deal that will create a media giant to rival Time Warner and Walt Disney. The combined company will have stakes in two fast-growing media businesses: radio and cable networks. Those areas will account for two-thirds of the earnings in what will be known as Viacom when the deal closes early next year. Karmazin shrugs off the coup. ''Yahoo!'s stock did better in one day than we did all year,'' he quips. The biggest Y2K question hanging over Karmazin's head now is how he'll manage to get along with Viacom Chairman and controlling shareholder Sumner M. Redstone. Karmazin will all but run the combined company, under a three-year contract. But Redstone will no doubt be keeping a close watch on Karmazin. ''The only thing Sumner is questioning me on is that I achieve my goal, which is to make him richer than Bill Gates,'' he says. Ba-da-boom. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS INTRODUCTION MANAGERS TO WATCH THE TOP ENTREPRENEURS THE TOP 25 MANAGERS Minuro Arakawa Bernard Arnault Arthur Blank Peter Bijur Gordon Binder Steve Case John Chambers James Curvey Thierry Desmarest Bernie Ebbers Tom Engibous Chris Gent Irwin Jacobs Steve Jobs Mel Karmazin James Kelly Timothy Koogle Ken Lay Jenny Ming Thomas Siebel Masayoshi Son Martha Stewart Keiji Tachikawa Jack Welch Yun Jong Yong ONLINE EXTRAS TO BUSINESS WEEK INVESTOR INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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