Viacom: Breaking up is easy to do

The tricksy media world is quick to spot a fashion and the fashion of the moment is splitting up. This week, John Malone’s Liberty Media said it would demerge its Discovery Networks business. Now Sumner Redstone’s Viacom plans to do much the same. He may split his company into a TV and radio broadcasting unit, and a faster growing movies and MTV operation. Others firms may well follow suit, including Sony, Time Warner and Walt Disney. Several factors explain the deconsolidation fad. Organic gro...