Page 50 - Forbes - USA (October 2019)

every flat surface. Shari herself poses with the six
Super Bowl trophies claimed by her beloved New
England Patriots. And Sumner is represented,
too, his portrait sitting behind her desk. Rather
than the confident, austere, imposing image that
most founders favor, this one depicts him clos-
er to how he looks now: frail, bent over, shrunk-
en with age, dressed in the jersey of their shared
46 team, the Patriots.
“No matter how hard or challenging it got, I
tried to keep my head down, fight for what was
E
N right and not read the press,” Redstone says dur-
O ing one of a series of interviews with Forbes, the
T
S first she’s given since she won the fight for the fu-
D
E ture of CBS and Viacom that started four years
R
ago. “For me, it was really important to ignore
I
R the noise and to keep looking forward.”
A
H That required some steely discipline. The bat-
S → For nearly two
tle royale played out on a seemingly daily basis,

E
L and it had the kinds of twists and drama that
I
F decades, Sumner even HBO’s Succession, clearly inspired in part
O
R by the Redstones (with a larger dash of Mur-
Redstone lorded dochs), couldn’t make up. After years of lobbying,
P
cajoling, legal wrangling and boardroom maneu-
over the media vering, the petite, 65-year-old Shari Redstone of-
ficially emerged in August as the chairman of the
juggernaut he soon-to-be combined entity, having remade the
recalcitrant boards of both Viacom and CBS.
“There were a lot of men around her, very pow-
created from the erful men, either telling her she wasn’t going to
win or who were her foes,” says Jason Hirschhorn,
corner of the 52nd a former chief digital officer for MTV, who lat-
er garnered an investment from Redstone’s ven-
ture firm. “They thought she was the rich guy’s
floor of Viacom’s daughter who didn’t know anything. And that, as
much as anything else, is why she’s won.”
headquarters, a clined to talk about many of the battle’s granular
Redstone, a lawyer by training, repeatedly de-

classic power perch details, including her dealings with Les Moonves,
with whom CBS is currently involved in arbitra-
tion. Her vantage point, as with her office, reverts
down to the tan to family—in this case, one with a $4.1 billion for-

tune and a roller-coaster relationship with her
leather sofas. legendarily headstrong father at the center.
That saga now has a surprising new chapter,
including a strong claim to Redstone being the
As the 96-year-old founder gradually fades most powerful woman in media.
from the scene, there’s a new occupant in the
cious corporate battle of this century so far—one S hari Redstone was born in 1954,
chairman’s office: his daughter, Shari, who
emerged victorious from arguably the most vi-
the same year that Sumner Red-
that occasionally pitted her against her own fa- stone became Sumner Redstone:
he quit his lucrative career as an
ther. antitrust lawyer to join the fam-
She’s wasted no time making the place her ily’s 14-theater drive-in chain, National Amuse-
own, with an overstuffed white couch and match- ments. “There isn’t a day that I don’t walk into
ing chairs arrayed around a coffee table with a that office and remember that it all began with
floral centerpiece. Family is everywhere, the pic- my father and his vision so many years ago,” Red-
tures of her children and grandchildren covering stone says.

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