Viacom to Take Over Midway?

Following speculation that Viacom was attempting to buy out publishing giants Electronic Arts, company CEO Summer Redstone has said to CNN Money that this will definitely not be happening. However, he had expressed a firm interest in doing so, and was held back only by the prohibitive cost of acquiring such a large company, estimated to be worth $20 billion.

Since the resignation of Viacom’s former president, Mel Karmazin, many financial speculators have strongly suspected that the company was looking out for some fast growing assets. Electronic Arts was a little too fast-growing to fit that role though. So the question remains: is Viacom still planning on acquiring a game publisher?

Summer Redstone personally holds a large controlling share of Midway. Midway’s chairman announced his resignation today. Midway would be a (fairly) fast-growing asset. Midway’s CEO recently had to sell his own stock in the company for "tax purposes". Perhaps this is just a conspiracy of coincidences, or perhaps it is a clear indication that such a buy-out is plausible in the near future.

There have been no official confirmations as yet but, as we always say, watch this space.