Report: Viacom settlement talks include CEO leaving
Viacom and its controlling shareholders, Sumner Redstone and his daughter, are said to be in settlement talks that could lead to a change in the media company’s CEO office.
Mired in bitter legal disputes, Viacom and the Redstones have discussed replacing CEO Philippe Dauman with Viacom COO Thomas Dooley, reported the Los Angeles Times Tuesday, citing anonymous sources.
Earlier this year, Sumner Redstone, the company’s former chairman, removed Dauman from his trust, which would control Redstone’s business interests when he dies or is declared incapacitated.
Dauman, who has countersued to be reinstated to Redstone's trust, says Redstone, 93 and in frail health, is being unduly influenced by Shari Redstone in her attempt to regain control of Viacom. Shari Redstone has said her father makes his own decisions. Sumner Redstone and Shari Redstone own National Amusements, the privately held theater company that owns 80% of the controlling stock of Viacom.
Viacom and National Amusements declined to comment on the report.
Shares of Viacom, which owns Paramount Pictures, MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and MTV, rose 0.2% Wednesday to $42.94.
Their willingness to settle and avoid costly lawsuits could trigger a sweeping transformation of Viacom’s management and operations. Beyond wanting to see Dauman leave, the Redstones have already put in motion legal steps to remove a big portion of the company’s board, a change that the Redstones will likely insist in the talks.
In June, Sumner Redstone filed legal documents in Delaware to replace five directors of Viacom's board, including Dauman, Frederic Salerno, George Abrams, Blythe McGarvie and William Schwartz.
Salerno, Viacom’s lead independent director, filed a lawsuit to stop the board overhaul.
The new Viacom directors proposed by Redstone are: Kenneth Lerer, managing partner at Lerer Hippeau Ventures and the chairman of BuzzFeed; Thomas May, chairman of Eversource Energy; Judith McHale, CEO of Cane Investments and former CEO of Discovery Communications; Ronald Nelson, executive chairman of the board of Avis Budget Group; and Nicole Seligman, former president of Sony Entertainment.
The settlement talks also involve the fate of Viacom's film studio, Paramount. Dauman is in talks to sell a 49% stake to raise funds to pay off some debt and fund other operations. The Redstones are opposed to the plan, the LA Times reported.