he publicly blasted her for making an effort to succeed him as chair of Viacom and CBS, saying she and her brother, Brent, had made “little or no contribution” to building the media empire. “While my daughter talks of good governance, she apparently ignores the cardinal rule of good governance that the boards of two public companies, Viacom and CBS, should select my successor,” he wrote.
That left Shari Redstone with a 20% stake in National Amusements, which had morphed into a holding company for Viacom and CBS. It was complex. She had defended her father and publicly rebuked her brother when he sued for his rightful stake in the holding company. She forgave and protected Sumner even after he denigrated her to Viacom executives. But the elder Redstone had taken a shine to two other executives, Philippe Dauman and Les Moonves.
“Basically, it was really a lot about financial engineering and stock buybacks and not believing in the people who created content, not supporting the people creating content, not creating a culture of creating content,” Redstone says. “So, I was up against that, and I tried to fight that battle for years to no avail.”
Ailing and struggling with physical mobility but still in control, her father proved to be her biggest challenge. For a time, Shari and her family wouldn’t visit the Beverly Hills mansion that Sumner shared with two women, then-girlfriend Sydney Holland and a former companion, Manuela Herzer, and communication was limited.
Once they were reconciled, she shared her concerns about Viacom with her father. She talked about his lost legacy, the flight of talent, including marquee stars Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, and the loss of viewers to digital platforms. She lamented the damaged culture. Then one day in February 2016 Dauman drove past the metal gates of Sumner’s home in the exclusive Beverly Park neighborhood to propose selling an equity stake in Paramount, in a meeting vividly described in Keach Hagey’s biography of Sumner,. Sumner’s 1994 triumph over QVC Chairman Barry Diller in the pursuit of Paramount, the oldest surviving film studio in the U.S., was the career victory he would savor most. Selling it was tantamount to treason.
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