For nearly a year, Shari Redstone has been locked in a battle for control of CBS Corp. — facing off against a powerful chief executive and other members of the board. So tense was the standoff that CBS went to court to pry loose the Redstones’ grip on the company. Armistice arrived Sunday. In one dramatic swoop, CBS announced the departure of longtime CEO Leslie Moonves amid a widening sexual harassment scandal, installed an acting CEO and announced six new members to its board. Gone were the old-timers, friends of Sumner Redstone, who were some of Moonves’ strongest allies.
Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of CBS Corp., is quietly looking for a potential replacement for Leslie Moonves, the embattled chief executive of CBS, according to two people close to her.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a Delaware judge said he had concerns about the medical condition of 95-year-old media mogul Sumner Redstone and declined to order that he be deposed in the legal battle between his family’s holding company, National Amusements Inc., and CBS Corp. Journal subscribers can read the full story here.
National Amusements Inc. and CBS Corp. are fighting over the admissibility of a recent video of Sumner Redstone as part of the larger legal fight over control of CBS. The video purportedly supports CBS’ contention that CBS and Viacom chairman emeritus Sumner Redstone is no longer mentally competent and that his daughter, Shari Redstone, has been improperly calling the shots at his National Amusements holding company, which controls Viacom and CBS.
At a particularly tense moment at CBS, the company must now answer for the destruction of messages by senior executives. According to an emergency discovery motion filed by Shari Redstone’s National Amusements, CBS has admitted to spoiling certain evidence in the ongoing battle over control of the broadcast giant.
