The rumors just get more and more ludicrous – but this one just might happen: Microsoft Corp is now said to be eyeing Westinghouse Electric Corp’s CBS with a view to acquisition. According to an article in Tuesday’s New York Post, Microsoft would use CBS as part of its strategy to help it get its way over the future direction of digital television technology, which the broadcasting companies are currently fighting every inch of the way. Seagram Co Ltd is also looking at CBS, says the Post, which got sources close to CBS to say that the company wasn’t for sale; Westinghouse acquired CBS for $4.5bn in 1995. At the time, Microsoft was said to be interested in bankrolling Ted Turner’s Turner Broadcasting System Inc so that it would have deep enough pockets for a counter-bid (CI No 2,728).
