Viacom Inc. Class B shares fell $3.01, or 7.8 percent, to $35.61 in afternoon trading Monday. The Redstone firm said it is encouraged that the companies can thrive separately, citing new Viacom Acting Chief Executive Bob Bakish's 'forward-looking thinking and strategic plan' and confidence that Les Moonves, chief of CBS, could continue to deliver strong results there. Now, the company says that following management changes at Viacom and strength at CBS, which operates CBS, Showtime and other entities, under Les Moonves it makes more sense for the companies to continue as separate entities. STILL NEEDS FIXING

National Amusements, the privately held movie company through which Shari Redstone and her 93-year-old father control 80 percent of the voting shares of CBS and Viacom, said in a letter they stopped pushing for a deal on the expectation of a turnaround at Viacom under new leadership. A DECADE APART

In September, National Amusements called on Viacom and CBS to consider recombining, 10 years after Viacom was spun off from CBS. Slideshow (2 Images)

A Viacom spokesman confirmed it had received the letter from National Amusements, which was first reported by CNBC.
National Amusements announces CBS Corporation and Viacom media companies will not be merging. CBS shares rose 1.8 percent closing in on a nearly 2-1/2 year high while Viacom fell 6.9 percent.