Redstone's National Amusements Removes Five Viacom Directors
June 16 2016 - 4:10PM
Dow Jones News
Sumner Redstone's National Amusements removed five board members
of Viacom Inc., setting up a likely high-stakes legal fight amid
deepening turmoil in the mogul's $40 billion media empire.
National Amusements, the holding company through which Mr.
Redstone controls Viacom, said in a statement that it has removed
directors including Philippe P. Dauman, who is Viacom's CEO and a
30-year trusted confidant of Mr. Redstone.
Other ousted directors include George S. Abrams, Blythe J.
McGarvie, Frederic V. Salerno and William Schwartz.
The newly elected directors are Kenneth Lerer, managing partner
of a venture capital fund and chairman of BuzzFeed; Thomas May,
chairman of Eversource Energy; Judith McHale, a former senior
executive at cable programming giant Discovery Communications Inc.;
Ronald Nelson, chairman of Avis Budget Group Inc. and Nicole
Seligman, a former president of Sony Entertainment.
A Viacom spokesman had no immediate comment. Previously, people
close to the company have signaled that Viacom directors would
likely fight any removal by National Amusements in court.
In recent weeks, the 93-year-old Mr. Redstone, who is in poor
health, has been overhauling his empire, which includes also
includes CBS Corp. He ousted Messrs. Dauman and Abrams from the
trust that will oversee his holdings after he dies or is
incapacitated. He also booted them from his holding company,
National Amusements.
Messrs. Dauman and Abrams have challenged those moves in a
Massachusetts court, arguing that Mr. Redstone lacks the mental
capacity to make these decisions and is under "undue" influence
from his daughter, Shari Redstone, Viacom's vice chairman.
Write to Joe Flint at joe.flint@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 16, 2016 15:55 ET (19:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
CBS (NYSE:CBS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024
CBS (NYSE:CBS)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024
