Viacom and Yahoo walking down the aisle ?

The recent turn of events at Viacom has had a number of analysts and media watchers speculating about a possible sale/merger in the near future.

Some of what I say here comes from reading, between the lines, Sumner Redstone's autobiography. Redstone would want to go out with a mega deal. I initially guessed that a Viacom - Electronic Arts merger would be perfect. Redstone's bio shows that he is interested in the gaming business. After buying regularly on the open market, Redstone and his National Amusements company, already own around 75% of game maker Midway (MWY). That must be just one stepping stone on the aisle.

A Viacom / Yahoo merger, as suggested by a few watchers, will definitely meet the criteria in terms of size and impact that Redstone likely would want to see. But, unless the price tag and the expectations are kept under control, that would be an extremely risky deal, just like the bad marriage between AOL / Time Warner a few years ago.

A Viacom / EA deal is less risky, while still being large enough to get attention from the media. I would definitely vote for such a deal.

Update: the speculation continues. I came across another piece where a Comcast/Viacom merger was picked as a likely end result. I can't say much about this except that the other two I mentioned earlier look better in comparison.