| Company | Viacom Inc. (multiple recipient) |
| Date Announced | 10/13/1994 |
| Site | 1633 Broadway and 1515 Broadway (bet. 44th and 45th) and 1230 Avenue of the Americas |
| Total Subsidy | $15 million |
|
$5.6 million |
| Promised Job Creation | 2,500 |
| Promised Job Retention | 4,450 |
| Length of Contract | 15 years |
| Competing Sites | none |
| Conditions | none |
| Notes | This $15 million package of sales tax exemptions granted to multimedia firm Viacom to expand in midtown Manhattan was the sixth retention deal of the Giuliani administration. The deal included $3.2 million in sales tax exemptions tied to renovating Viacom's headquarters on Broadway, $6.2 million in sales tax breaks for buying or leasing new equipment and $5.6 million in the form of a sales tax credit for each new worker hired. Viacom had threatened to move 1,600 clerical and administrative jobs to New Jersey but not to move its headquarters. Earlier in 1994, Viacom spent billions in its takeover of Paramount Communications. |
| Corporate Notes | Cable/movie/publishing
conglomerate Viacom merged with TV network CBS in 2000. That merger formed
the world's second largest media corporation after Time Warner. CBS has
reaped two subsidy deals of its own, one for $49.3 million in 1993 and one
for $10 million in 1999 (see separate entries).
In 1994, Viacom acquired Paramount Communications Inc., which included Simon & Schuster and Paramount Pictures, and Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation. Viacom also owns MTV, Showtime, VH-1 and Nickelodeon cable networks. Viacom owned Madison Square Garden until selling it for $1.1 billion to ITT Corp and Cablevisions Systems Corp. |
| Critics | |
| A
note on sources -- or why many of these profiles appear incomplete.
They are. Good Jobs New York compiled the numbers in these profiles from
press releases and news accounts of the deals. Unfortunately, more
detailed information on these subsidies is very difficult to obtain --
even though it should be readily available to the public. In many cases,
neither the company nor the city nor state released certain information,
particularly the terms of the agreement, i.e., the conditions which the
company had to meet in order to receive the subsidy. It should also be
noted that the value of the subsidy may not end up being equal to the
value estimated at the time of the agreement. And it should not be assumed
that the actual number of jobs retained and created will be the same as
the numbers predicted.
Because the public deserves easy access to information about how taxpayer dollars are being spent, Good Jobs New York will update these profiles as we uncover more information. Good Jobs New York - May 25, 2001 |
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