Billionaire Sumner Redstone, media mogul who headed Viacom, dead at 97 (updated)

Via Renewables

12/08/2020 13:29

By Helen Coster
    NEW YORK, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Viacom and CBS Chairman
Emeritus Sumner Redstone, the media mogul who took his father's
movie theater chain and built it into an empire that included
Paramount Pictures, CBS and MTV, has died at 97, ViacomCBS and
National Amusements said on Wednesday.
    Redstone, as executive chairman of both Viacom Inc  VIA.O 
and CBS Corp  CBS.N , had controlled the two companies through
privately held National Amusements. But in his early 90s, the
state of Redstone's physical and mental health set off an
avalanche of corporate maneuvering over his media holdings that
resulted in him stepping down in 2016 as executive chairman of
both companies. 
     CBS and Viacom were combined from 2000 to 2006, when
Redstone separated them in an attempt to unleash the value of
Viacom's cable channels.

 (Reporting by Helen Coster and Jennifer Saba; Editing by Bill
Trott, Diane Craft and Toby Chopra)
 ((helen.coster@thomsonreuters.com; 646 223 4583; @hcoster))