Viacom Inc. reports the following footnote in its $200510-$K$.$

Discontinued Operations In $2004,$ Viacom completed the exchange offer for the split$-$off of Blockbuster Inc. $("$Blockbuster$")($NYSE: BBI and BBI.B$).$ Under the terms of the offer, Viacom accepted $27,961,165$ shares of Viacom common stock in exchange for the $144$ million common shares of Blockbuster that Viacom owned. Each share of Viacom Class A or Class B common stock accepted for exchange by Viacom was exchanged for $5\mathrm{.}15$ shaes of Blockbuster common stock, consisting of $2\mathrm{.}575$ shares of Blockbuster Class A common stock and $2\mathrm{.}575$ shares of Blockbuster Class B common stock.

a$.$ Describe the accounting for a split$-$off.

$.$ How will the proposed split$-$off affect the number of Viacom shares outstanding?

c$.$ Under what circumstances will Viacom be able to report a gain for this proposed split$-$off?