By Christiana Sciaudone
Investing.com -- Shares of media companies such as ViacomCBS (NASDAQ:VIAC) and Lions Gates are rising amid speculation of further consolidation in the world of entertainment following the AT&T (NYSE:T) media business spin off and merger with Discovery (NASDAQ:DISCA).
ViacomCBS and Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE:LGFa) were up 6%, while AMC Networks (NASDAQ:AMCX) and Fox Corp increased 2%.
AT&T said Monday it would create a new company out of the merger, which would be the second-biggest U.S. media company by revenue and a hefty competitor to streaming giants including Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). Streaming services are bulking up to compete with each other.
Also on Monday, The New York Times, citing people familiar with the situation, reported that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has been in talks to sell itself to Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), which would add James Bond and Rocky, among others, to Amazon's portfolio.