Lawyers for besieged Viacom boss Philippe Dauman have begun settlement talks with entrenched foes — Shari Redstone and her 93-year-old founder father, Sumner — to try to end the nonstop litigation over who’s running the company, The Post has learned.
Dauman accuses Shari Redstone of stepping into the void caused by Sumner’s mental incapacitation and masterminding an unauthorized corporate takeover of her dad’s $40 billion media empire, which includes CBS.
Shari’s pirating of Viacom included dismissing Dauman from the family trust and the board of Viacom’s controlling entity, National Amusements, Inc.
Dauman’s legal eagles at Paul Weiss believe they could leverage a winning hand to keep their client at Viacom’s wheel for another 18 months, sources said.
That time would allow the CEO’s turnaround initiatives to be tested.
Weiss lawyers also are said to be asking for a new independent chief executive at NAI, a position now held by the senior Redstone.
It’s unclear the extent to which these initiatives have been fully discussed with Shari Redstone’s camp, but sources there confirmed that settlement talks have been initiated.
Meanwhile, she is continuing to spend big on numerous legal fronts to hasten Dauman’s exit. Courts in Delaware and Massachusetts have yet to decide whether to hear questions of Sumner Redstone’s competency.
“He [Dauman] knows he’s out, why not have a soft landing?” said a source close to the talks. “He’s thinking, ‘I’ll drag it out, or we can steady the ship and hold hands.’”
Cinema chain NAI controls around 80 percent of the voting stock of Viacom and CBS.
Reps for both sides said they had no knowledge of such discussions.
Meanwhile, Shari Redstone is reportedly working through a shortlist of prospective new CEOs for Viacom, even without a clear idea of when — or if — Dauman gets the ax.
Candidates include iHeartMedia’s Bob Pittman, former Sony TV chief Steve Mosko, DreamWorks Animation’s Jeffrey Katzenberg and former Disney top exec Thom Staggs, several sources confirm.
Viacom shares fell 1.4 percent on Wednesday, to $44.80.