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stocke under a little bit of pressure today I'm curious as to the couple of days that brought you to this point you ended up striking a deal at 0.596 25 of a CBS chair did you come down to meet CBS so look we're thrilled that yesterday we announced the combination of Viacom CBS creating a leading global multi-platform premium content company when you look at the assets it unites you know the powerhouse CBS a broadcast or a station operator a syndicated or a studio with Paramount Pictures one of the most storied studios in Hollywood a set of global brands in Parham in Nickelodeon MTV and Comedy Central and BT they're really shaped culture for 40 years Simon Shuster a force in consumer publishing and of course Showtime a premium service that's really pushed the boundaries of storytelling so we've created an incredible asset base now this was a deal that was negotiated by two special committees that went through a very diligent and thoughtful process and again I think the critical thing is we got the deal done because it positions us to do great things going forward no question it's a phenomenal deal for both sides and clearly there was willingness on both sides to get it done somehow yet there are some shareholders that are a little bit non Plus that Viacom isn't valued more in this deal Mario gabelli for example threatening to sue could you have come up would CBS have given in eventually again this is a deal the negotiation was conducted by two special committees of independent directors what you need to focus on is the value creation potential that's here these are two companies that were there valued at particularly low multiples a lot of that was due to the uncertainty that was hanging over them including this deal and also a lack of clarity on the path forward you know starting yesterday we talked and started talking about a three-part growth strategy you know really building a significant d2c business through the combination of CBS's subscription start where they have millions of subscribers between CBS all access and Showtime OTT and Viacom's ad-supported a structure with Pluto TV being the leading free streaming TV service in the u.s. 18 million monthly active views up 50 percent since we bought it you put those together you got a D to C ecosystem we love that we will be a very significant b2b partner with AD and distributors and of course a huge content supplier so very exciting growth strategy going forward as that tracks out people will see the very material value that's here you've also identified 500 million dollars in cost savings some of those will be job eliminations can you give us any more detail on how many perhaps and we're sure well when you put two companies together people talk about synergies those synergies in our case the number you reference is a cost number it's gross cost number it includes some organizational costs some sourcing benefits and some real estate benefits beyond that we haven't gotten into it but I think the more important thing to focus on is the power of this combination is going to create incredible value for all of our stakeholders including the incredible employees of Viacom CBS who together are going to shape the future of media I think that's what people need to focus on you Shari redstone who's now one of the only women at the top of a massive massive multi-billion dollar company in July and yellow all came from slightly different positions on this you and Joe in particular were on opposite sides for a time have you thought about how you all work together in the future to blend this company into a successful whole well sure we've been a lot of thought to that no I obviously work very closely with my board as Joe has worked with his Sherri's our controlling shareholder for both boards will be the chairman of the combined company so we'll work closely with her and the combined board I've known Joe for 20 years I have tremendous respect for what he's done throughout his career including notably at CBS and he and I are aligned in a vision of the extraordinary value creation opportunity this combined company has the same time we both know that CBS is a big complicated business someone needs to run it he's ideally suited to do that given his passion for the brand his intimate knowledge built over up over you know 20 years of being there and quite frankly he's interest in doing so so I'm thrilled to be partnering with Joe and moving this forward have you thought about whether there will be silos though whether CBS will operate on its own by or whether there'll be more of an integration and cooperation and how how the cultures will meet we've given a lot about that and you know we will create one Viacom CBS and if my point of comparison if you looked at Viacom circa end of 2016 people talked about the reality of that company it was very siloed paramount was an island the media networks didn't collaborate that much on the domestic side international was kind of separated as well I know it I was running international and over the last two and a half three years what we've done is we've brought this company together we're leveraging the brands in more ways than we ever have before people think of one Viacom and we're going to extend that thinking to Viacom CBS this is something Joe and I have spoke extensively about and we're 100% aligned up now this merger obviously gives you scale how will it help in terms of ad revenue growth and and then obviously we've got to streaming in a moment as well okay you look at the combined company on the content side 140,000 over 140,000 television episodes 3,600 films 750 shows order two are in production leadership positions in the US where we're the number one company by TV audience share in the UK where we have a major broadcaster in five in Argentina in Australia where we get a leadership position from CBS and in India and when you when you look at that and their ability to drive expanding and new partnerships on the business-to-business side with advertisers and distributors it's a very compelling opportunity will you prioritize when it comes to streaming for example you know the to CBS products has a goal of 25 million for 2022 in fact and then you also have Pluto on your end so what would be the goals there and how would you prioritize the subscription revenue versus what you can do in partnerships and on streaming indirect so in DC space what you see is two growth strategies that are different than are uniting under one roof as you point out CBS had an s5 subscription strategy 8 million subscribers between Showtime OTT and CBS all access Viacom on the other and pursued largely an ad-supported free strategy 18 million monthly active users at Pluto up 50% since we acquired the company earlier this year you unite those together you create a d2c ecosystem you bring consumers in through the free space and some consumers will just stay in free and you create value there others you'll sell into one or more packages of subscription product and by the way if it's if a subscriber takes a pause which is something you see in the space we can keep them in the free space continue to create value and moving back so what you have is two independent strategies that we're working and growing uniting and creating a much more powerful integrated strategy how dos are you watching the t-mobile court cases pan out because obviously you've announced as well that you're going to be across the t-mobile mobile service well look we are thrilled that we were at the Viacom side the launch announcement for their forthcoming video service we're very excited about that I for a number of years have spoke to the power of mobile as a catalyst for our business we're starting to see that come to life as you know we have nine services on AT&T watch here in the US getting a lot of consumption so mobile is a big deal have to ask you about potential acquisitions you haven't said that you're in any particular conversations yet but you're obviously not big enough to take on the behemoths even the likes of Netflix where would you be looking there's obviously been talk of discovery of stars is that the direction or are you looking more towards platforms so you look at combined Viacom CBS we talked about its power in content we talked about its power in terms of business-to-business with advertisers and distributors we talked about its head start Indy to see what we didn't talk about was its financial strength you bring these two companies together and you have a materially stronger company 28 billion dollars of revenue six billion dollars plus or minus of income two and a half billion dollars of cash flow we will intend to be investment-grade that financial strength gives us two strong advantages one it allows us to invest on an organic basis in programming and innovation and two it positions us well to take advantage of opportunities that may emerge in the marketplace from an M&A effective so we're very well positioned to move forward