Amazon, Verizon and a CBS-Viacom combination are in talks to acquire entertainment company Lionsgate, according to a Deadline report. Lionsgate – which owns the John Wick film franchise and produced the hit series Mad Men – captured around 8 percent of the US box office in 2017, helped by its USD 4.4 billion acquisition of the Starz premium channel in 2016, according Telecompaper. The news follows a Bloomberg report that Shari Redstone, vice chairman of CBS, is pushing for CBS CEO Moonves to once again consider a merger with Viacom to combine the two companies, which split over a decade ago.
