S&P Global Ratings on May 17 placed CBS Corp.'s BBB corporate credit rating on CreditWatch with negative implications.

The BBB issue-level and A-2 short-term ratings were also placed on CreditWatch negative, the rating agency said. The rating action follows the lawsuit filed by the company and the special board committee against controlling shareholder National Amusements Inc., alleging breaches of fiduciary duty.

On May 17, a Delaware judge denied CBS Corp.'s request for a temporary restraining order against NAI ahead of the board meeting to consider a special dividend that would significantly reduce National Amusements' voting power.

At the board meeting, CBS directors not affiliated with National Amusements voted to dilute control of the holding company, pending court approval.

This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings, a separately managed division of S&P Global. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings. The original S&P Global Ratings documents referred to in this news brief can be found here.