Page 54 - Forbes - USA (October 2019)

Redstone was so ing she and her brother, Brent, had made
pleased, he report- “little or no contribution” to building the
edly said, “Your life media empire. “While my daughter talks
is not complete until of good governance, she apparently ig-
you have met Shari.” nores the cardinal rule of good gover-
The sunshine of nance that the boards of two public com-
his approval did not panies, Viacom and CBS, should select
last long. The patri- my successor,” he wrote.
50 arch, who frequent- Brent had sued his father in 2006 for
ly boasted of his im- shutting him out of big deals—includ-
mortality—he fa- ing the decision to split Viacom into two
E
N mously clung to a companies—and for self-dealing. Shari
O third-story window took Sumner’s side, and the company
T
S ledge during a dead- issued a statement accusing her broth-
D
E ly blaze at the Co- er of “abusing the court system in an at-
R
pley Plaza hotel in tempt to extract a financial settlement in
I
R Boston, which left a family dispute.” Brent sued for access
A
H burns over almost to his one-sixth interest in the company
S
half of his body— and walked away with $240 million. (At-

E
L was also famous tempts to reach him at his home in Colo-
I
F for refusing to sur- rado were unsuccessful.)
O
R render power, dis- That left Shari Redstone with a 20%
P
pensing with a long stake in National Amusements, which had
string of well-re- morphed into a holding company for Vi-
garded executives, acom and CBS. It was complex. She had
from Frank Biondi defended her father and publicly rebuked
Philippe Dauman
to Mel Karmazin to her brother when he sued for his rightful
He was like another son to
Tom Freston. Sumner Redstone—and was stake in the holding company. She forgave
pushed out as CEO in 2016.
Sumner and Shari and protected Sumner even after he den-
began to clash over igrated her to Viacom executives. But the
succession, corporate governance and the fu- elder Redstone had taken a shine to two other
ture of the theater business. A major point of executives, Philippe Dauman and Les Moonves.
contention was her father’s investment in Mid- The battle to succeed Redstone was about to get
way Games, a company that later filed for bank- even trickier.
ruptcy. The tension erupted publicly in 2007, af-
ter Shari voted to block a $105 million charita- o Sumner, Dauman was like an-
ble gift that her father wanted to make to hospi- T other son. The Columbia-educat-
tal systems in Massachusetts and California. In a ed lawyer earned Sumner’s con-
letter to the trustees of the National Amusements fidence while hunkered down in
a one-bedroom room at the Car-
lyle Hotel in New York plotting his hostile bid-
DAU M A N WAS N A M E D C H I E F E X E C U T I V E
ding war for Viacom. National Amusements out-
W H E N C A B L E WA S AT I T S P E A K , B U T H E maneuvered a management-led buyout team in

LO S T H I S TO U C H I N 2 0 1 4 , W H E N V I AC O M ’ S 1987, acquiring the company’s assets, including
S TO C K S TA RT E D TO D E C L I N E A N D MTV Networks, Showtime, The Movie Channel
and Nickelodeon.
T E L E V I S I O N R AT I N G S D E T E R I O R AT E D.
Dauman was named chief executive of Viacom
at a time when cable television was at its peak.
Viacom’s MTV was arguably the most influential
cultural force of that generation, Nickelodeon
Trust, Sumner wrote that his daughter “does not became the dominant channel for kids with fare
have the requisite business judgment and abili- like SpongeBob SquarePants, and Comedy Cen-
ties to serve as chairman of the three companies,” tral became iconic for offerings like South Park
according to a lawsuit later filed by one of Sum- and The Daily Show. SYLVAIN GABOURY/PMC/NEWSCOM
ner’s former companions. But Dauman lost his touch in 2014, when Vi-
In a letter sent to Forbes five months later, acom’s stock started to decline, in lockstep with
he publicly blasted her for making an effort to television ratings and Paramount Filmed Enter-
succeed him as chair of Viacom and CBS, say- tainment revenue fell by $557 million—a trend

O C T O B E R 3 1 , 2 0 1 9
F O R B E S . C O M