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The CBS Corporation was a major media conglomerate which existed from 2005 to 2019. It owned CBS Broadcasting, Inc. which in turn was the titular holder of the Star Trek trademark and all other Star Trek related marks and copyrights. Effectively, it was CBS Corporation that owned the Star Trek franchise.

The CBS Corporation was previously known as Viacom. Following Viacom's split with CBS in 2005, Viacom dissolved and was re-established as the CBS Corporation, with Les Moonves appointed as its head. CBS acquired the rights to Viacom's Paramount Television (until then headed by Moonves) which was subsequently renamed CBS Paramount Network Television (later known as CBS Studios) and to UPN which Moonves subsequently merged with The WB (Warner Bros. – also a previous employer of Moonves) to become The CW. CBS Corporation also continued to own Simon and Schuster and Paramount Parks, which previously fell under Viacom. One of CBS's other subsidiaries was magazine publisher CBS Communications, which published the The Official CBS Watch! Collector's Edition magazine series, in which three Star Trek-themed issues were released.

Following the split, a new Viacom was founded. This company received the rights to Paramount Pictures, which included production and distribution of the Star Trek films. The licensing of consumer products related to Star Trek was controlled by the CBS Consumer Products division.

CBS Corporation and the new Viacom were both controlled by National Amusements (NAI). NAI was owned and controlled by Sumner Redstone until his retirement in 2016, when he was succeeded by his daughter Shari Redstone.

Moonves was removed from his position as CBS' chief executive in September 2018, in the wake of accusations of sexual assault and other sexual misconduct. [1] Moonves had been one of the key architects of the 2005 Viacom/CBS split, and had been opposing efforts by NAI owner Shari Redstone to reunite the two companies. In August 2019, CBS and Viacom announced that they would merge into a new corporation called ViacomCBS, reunifying the film and television sides of the Star Trek franchise. [2] In February 2022, ViacomCBS was rebranded as Paramount Global, or simply Paramount.

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