Sumner Redstone, a towering industry figure who turned a regional chain of movie theaters into a business empire that included Viacom, Paramount Pictures and CBS, has died at the age of 97.
National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of ViacomCBS, confirmed the news Wednesday morning.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Sumner M. Redstone, the self-made businessman, philanthropist and World War II veteran who built one of the largest collections of media assets in the world,” the company said in a statement. (Read it in full below.)
ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish, who joined Viacom in 1997, called Redstone “a brilliant visionary, operator and dealmaker, who single-handedly transformed a family-owned drive-in theater company into a global media portfolio. He was a force of nature and fierce competitor, who leaves behind a profound legacy in both business and philanthropy. ViacomCBS will remember Sumner for his unparalleled passion to win, his endless intellectual curiosity, and his complete dedication to the company. We extend our deepest sympathies to the Redstone family today.”
The media world hadn’t heard for years from the long-ailing mogul, who was born Sumner Murray Rothstein on May 27, 1923 in Boston. Since 2016, he held the largely honorary title of chairman emeritus at the company he built. A series of small strokes left him unable to speak, though he could communicate via a specially designed iPad. (In a column for Deadline last year, Peter Bart described visiting Redstone.)
Whenever he was pressed on succession planning over the decades, the hard-charging Redstone half-joked that he intended to be around forever. It certainly felt that way over several decades, as he took his family’s small movie theater business and built it into a colossus of film, television and publishing, in a mid-life burst starting when he was in his 60s.
With a decisive hand, the analytical mind of a Harvard-trained lawyer, an occasionally impetuous style and a pronounced Boston honk, he cut a singular figure in media and business circles. His rise mirrored that of a collection of moguls — Rupert Murdoch, Ted Turner, Barry Diller and others — who shaped modern media with whom he battled frequently. Redstone collected and shed assets along the way as strategy dictated and merged his two core companies – CBS and Viacom – twice.
Redstone jumped into pioneering new content and distribution forms, buying MTV Networks in 1987 to bring MTV and its music videos into the fold as well a Nickelodeon’s creative kids programming renaissance. He even had a stint owning Blockbuster video as he pushed to make a mark in the economics of film distribution.
He was highly litigious, slamming YouTube with a giant piracy suit as that platform started to grow, going after the equally tough John Malone and outmaneuvering Diller for control of Paramount. He could hold a grudge past the point of reason. Over Labor Day weekend in 2006, incensed by Viacom CEO Tom Freston’s inability to acquire MySpace (which rival Murdoch acquired) and also by a plunging stock price, he summoned Freston to his Beverly Hills mansion and fired him. The dismissal recalled the abrupt exit of Frank Biondi Jr. a decade earlier. Two weeks before giving Freston the heave-ho, Redstone banned Tom Cruise from the Paramount lot over concerns that Cruise’s personal drama was interfering with box office.
There was a business logic to the Cruise clash — given the star was holding 30% of first-dollar gross on the Mission: Impossible films — but notably less so in a series of other moves executed by Redstone in the 2000s. Chief among the puzzlements was the decision to split Viacom from CBS in 2006, a move that continues to have reverberations and what-ifs attached to it. Les Moonves took over CBS and would eventually become a company foe, taking National Amusements to court over its control of the company but ultimately being forced out amid sexual assault and harassment allegations.
The Viacom side of the house was run by Philippe Dauman, Redstone’s former personal attorney, who replaced Freston. A far more taciturn and cautious figure than his boss, Dauman passed on acquiring Marvel, which was pounced on by Disney’s Bob Iger, and also presided over an ill-fated alliance with DreamWorks. Dauman also alienated key distributors of Viacom cable networks, cut costs to the nub and let on-air talent like John Oliver jump to rival networks as executive talent also fled. Eventually, Redstone and Dauman filed lawsuits against each other and Dauman was forced out of the company in 2015.
On a personal level, though, Redstone was known to be incredibly tough. One of the enduring images of the mogul is of him hanging onto a window sill of the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston as a fire engulfed the building in 1979. He survived, as did his longtime mistress, though one of Redstone’s hands had permanent, pronounced scars.
Redstone’s personal life was tumultuous, with several acrimonious divorces, feuds with his children and business partners alike. In 2002, writer Michael Woolf called Redstone an “old-school egomaniac who has an operatic personal life that has been largely kept out of the media undoubtedly because he controls so much of it.” A decade later, less central to the company’s operations and in declining health, that was less and less the case and soon tawdry stories began appearing in Vanity Fair and elsewhere.
As Bakish was installed to replace Dauman and right the ship at Viacom, daughter Shari Redstone, head of National Amusements, took on a greater role. Once estranged, they reached a form of reconciliation and she would often sprinkle Sumner-isms into her public remarks in a nod to the company’s heritage.
Sumner Redstone’s later years were marred by messy legal feuding between caretakers, girlfriends and his daughter as he grew increasingly incapacitated. Those suits have been settled, as has the structure of his beloved company, which since last December has been merged again into a single entity.
Here is the full statement from National Amusements:
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Sumner M. Redstone, the self-made businessman, philanthropist and World War II veteran who built one of the largest collections of media assets in the world. He passed away yesterday at the age of 97.
Over the course of his distinguished life and career, Sumner played a critical role in shaping the landscape of the modern media and entertainment industry. At National Amusements, he transformed a regional theater chain into a world leader in the motion picture exhibition industry. Sumner was also a keen investor who took stakes in a variety of companies, including Viacom Inc. and CBS Corporation – today merged as ViacomCBS – which he built into prominent, international and industry-leading conglomerates in the media industry.
Sumner was a man of unrivaled passion and perseverance, who devoted his life to his belief in the power of content. With his passing, the media industry he loved so dearly loses one of its great champions. Sumner, a loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather, will be greatly missed by his family who take comfort knowing that his legacy will live on for generations to come.
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August 12, 2020 at 07:13PM
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Sumner Redstone Dies: Giant Of The Media World Was 97 - Deadline
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