Page 56 - Forbes - USA (October 2019)
P. 56
that would accelerate the following year. Red- She took a more active role in her father’s life
stone, who pulled away from National Amuse- after he went through a series of hospitalizations
ments, and in 2011 started a venture firm with her in the summer of 2014, claiming in a court fil-
son-in-law, was growing increasingly concerned. ing that a nurse confided he had witnessed emo-
Executives past and present were lamenting the tional and financial abuse of the frail billionaire.
slow erosion of a culture built around her father’s While the two women denied the allegations,
oft-stated mantra, “Content is king.” they were removed from the home in 2015, and
“The culture and the values that represented after a legal battle that revealed embarrassing
52 everything that Viacom was disappeared under details of Sumner’s sexual and other appetites,
Philippe,” she says. “The belief in content, that it Shari took charge of his care and once again be-
matters, disappeared under Philippe.” gan visiting her father.
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N Dauman declined comment. “Sadly, people came into his life who had a dif-
O Viacom spent $15 billion on buybacks in an at- ferent agenda, and their agenda was to separate
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S tempt to prop up the stock, while rivals were ac- us. And in some ways they did a good job,” Red-
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E quiring properties that added immense long-term stone says. “It never meant we stopped loving
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value to their libraries, such as Disney’s purchas- each other or caring about each other, but it be-
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R es of Marvel Entertainment and came really hard.”
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H Lucas film. Redstone, who sat on Once they were reconciled, she
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the board, was constrained with- shared her concerns about Via-
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L out her father’s support. com with her father. She talked
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F “Basically, it was really a lot about his lost legacy, the flight of
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R about financial engineering and talent, including marquee stars
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stock buybacks and not believing Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart,
in the people who created con- and the loss of viewers to digital
tent, not supporting the people platforms. She lamented the dam-
creating content, not creating a aged culture.
culture of creating content,” Red- “He asked me a question, and
stone says. “So, I was up against the question caused me to say,
that, and I tried to fight that bat- ‘Look, Dad, let me tell you what
tle for years to no avail.” happened at Viacom.’ And I went
She watched helplessly as the through all of the businesses of
legacy Sumner built faded away. Viacom, the positions I had taken
MTV and Nickelodeon were los- on the board, which had not nec-
ing relevance as young audienc- essarily been well received. So he
es turned their gaze online. Para- was only hearing Philippe’s view
mount Pictures, the studio of the of what was going on at the com-
Godfather movies was releasing pany, what was going on at the
duds like Hot Tub Time Machine board and what my views were,”
2 and a remake of Ben-Hur. Redstone says. “So I kind of came
“We have the best opportuni- in, and I gave my dad that whole
ty of any media company in the sense. And even at the end of that,
world to be number one going I think when he understood what
forward,” she recalls saying to the was going on in the company, he
board at the time. “We own these wasn’t ready to let Philippe go.”
people. Shame on us if we lose Then one day in February 2016
them.” Dauman drove past the met-
But while she found the board indifferent to Les Moonves al gates of Sumner’s home in the exclusive Bev-
her concerns, she says much of the company was The CBS chief erly Park neighborhood to propose selling an eq-
invigorated a
rallying behind her. “People were rooting for network and was uity stake in Paramount, in a meeting vividly de-
me—not for me, but because they wanted Via- brought down by scribed in Keach Hagey’s biography of Sumner,
#MeToo allegations.
com back,” she says. The King of Content. Sumner’s 1994 triumph over
Ailing and struggling with physical mobility QVC Chairman Barry Diller in the pursuit of Para-
but still in control, her father proved to be her mount, the oldest surviving film studio in the U.S.,
biggest challenge. For a time, Shari and her fam- was the career victory he would savor most. Sell- DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG
ily wouldn’t visit the Beverly Hills mansion that ing it was tantamount to treason.
Sumner shared with two women, then-girlfriend Sumner instructed his lawyers not to sell, but
Sydney Holland and a former companion, Manu- it was his daughter he turned to to ensure that it
ela Herzer, and communication was limited. didn’t happen.
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