Viacom: Sumner Redstone to Step Down From Board -- Update
December 16 2016 - 10:42AM
Dow Jones News
By Imani Moise
Viacom Inc. Chairman Emeritus Sumner Redstone will resign from
the company's board following its annual meeting in February.
After the meeting, set for Feb. 6, Mr. Redstone will continue to
attend meetings in a nonvoting role, according to a company
filing.
Shares rose 2.4% to $35.73 during morning trading, though they
are still down 13% so far this year.
The announcement comes days after Mr. Redstone and his daughter
Shari Redstone ended their effort to merge Viacom and CBS Corp.
Redstone family holding company National Amusements Inc. -- which
has nearly 80% voting stakes in both media companies -- said it was
"not the right time to merge the companies," a bet that the media
giant could turn its fortunes around under the leadership of new
Chief Executive Brian Bakish.
In the latest quarter, Viacom's profit plunged as it continued
to grapple with an unforgiving media environment.
The mental capacity of Mr. Redstone has been at the center of a
series of recent legal battles. Those fights have come amid a power
struggle atop Viacom resulting in the ouster of former Chief
Executive Philippe Dauman and the rising prominence of Ms. Redstone
in the media empire. In May, a judge dismissed a case challenging
Mr. Redstone's mental capacity.
Write to Imani Moise at imani.moise@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 16, 2016 10:27 ET (15:27 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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