
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 8, 1994                   TAG: 9401080102
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

VIACOM BOOSTS ITS BID

Viacom moved boldly Friday to clinch the prolonged takeover battle for Paramount, raising its cash offer and agreeing to merge with Blockbuster Entertainment.

The moves were announced just hours before a deadline for Viacom either to raise its bid for Paramount or risk losing the company to Barry Diller's QVC.

Viacom Inc. owns cable networks such as MTV and Showtime; Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. is the nation's biggest video rental store operator.

Diller, a former Paramount movie boss, has another two weeks to consider revising his offer in light of Viacom's new bid.

Both Viacom and QVC Network Inc. are offering combinations of cash and stock for Paramount Communications Inc.

While Viacom's offer contains about $1 billion more cash than QVC's, the overall bid is worth slightly less, analysts said.

Viacom said it was raising the cash portion of its offer for 50.1 percent of Paramount to $105 a share. It had been offering $85 a share, or about $5.1 billion, for 51 percent of the entertainment and publishing company.

Analysts said the overall value of the bid is about $79.23 a share.

QVC's latest offer was $92 a share, or about $5.5 billion, for 51 percent of Paramount stock. Counting the stock offer, QVC's bid is worth about $82 a share.

However, stockholders have been focusing on the cash portion of the bids, because of the greater certainty about the value of the deal; stock prices can vary widely.

Paramount said its board would meet next week to consider the revised Viacom offer.

by CNB