Industry Feeling Presence of the 800-Pound Google

Before 2006 ends, Iger will finally name a No. 2: Anne Sweeney, the cable executive whom he credits with reviving the ABC television network.

Adieu, Yahoo

Former ABC executive Lloyd Braun, who was hired by Yahoo more than a year ago to oversee the Internet leader's foray into original programming on the Web, will exit after clashing repeatedly with Silicon Valley's laid-back culture.

He will have a soft landing, though, as Paramount Pictures chief Brad Grey hires him to turn DreamWorks Television into a major prime-time TV supplier. That will put Paramount in direct competition with its former division, Paramount Television, which will be absorbed into CBS Inc. when parent company Viacom Inc. splits itself in two Monday.

Les wants to be more

When Chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone announced his intention to split Viacom and put former CBS chief Leslie Moonves and former cable chief Tom Freston atop the two new companies, it didn't take long for pundits to dub those ventures "Lesco" and "Fresco." Late last year, however, Viacom insiders adopted new nicknames: "Via-les" and "Via-more."

That's because the assets that Moonves will inherit, including radio, billboard and TV stations, have slower growth potential than those that Freston will take on, including MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures.

In 2006, though, Moonves will move to turn "Via-slow" into "Via-grow" through acquisitions in cable, the Web and even movies. Among other things, the former actor, who has long pined to get a foothold in the film business, will make a play for independent studio Lionsgate, which is on a hot streak with such low-budget hits as the "Saw" horror franchise and "Crash."

But worries about the low returns of the movie biz will cause Redstone to nix Moonves' attempt to gobble up Lionsgate. The studio instead will be acquired by Yahoo, which will need to send a strong message to the creative community in the wake of Braun's departure.

MGM changes hands -- again

Sony Corp. and the private equity partners that purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer last year will split up, ending an acrimonious alliance marked by missed financial targets and a strategic stalemate. Providence Equity Partners and the Texas Pacific Group, which control a majority of the board, will exercise an option in their agreement to dump Sony as a distributor of the MGM movies.