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Video of Redstone patriarch to be reviewed in CBS legal battle

August 08, 2018 at 07:49 pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A video of 95-year-old Sumner Redstone, the patriarch of the family that owns the voting majority of CBS Corp, can be reviewed in the U.S. broadcast and media company's legal battle against the family, a Delaware judge ruled on Wednesday.

Redstone, however, will not be required to give testimony, the judge decided.

National Amusements Inc, the Redstone family's holding company, and CBS are in the midst of a high-stakes legal dispute over control of the company and its potential merger with Viacom Inc, also majority-owned by NAI. Shari Redstone, the daughter of Sumner, has pushed to combine Viacom with CBS.

The health and mental faculties of Sumner Redstone, the founder and chairman emeritus of Viacom, and the majority owner of NAI, are a flashpoint for dispute in the battle for control.

"We are very pleased with the court's ruling today, which will now allow us to conduct appropriate discovery from National Amusements on the issue of who controls NAI," CBS said in a statement, adding that the video of Redstone would be kept confidential.

National Amusements declined to comment.

CBS had pushed to have the tape, which could end up as evidence in the trial, included for review, while NAI has previously said that the recording broke California law because Redstone did not know he was being filmed.

The contents of the video have not been made public. A source with knowledge of the situation said the video was taken by a CBS board member, is several minutes long and shows Sumner Redstone's physical and mental state.

National Amusements must produce certain documents requested by CBS, according to court filings.

CBS said it will also be able to secure National Amusements' documents relating to the 2016 ousting of five Viacom directors, including then-CEO Philippe Dauman.

The CBS board had approved a dividend earlier this year that would dilute the Redstone family's majority voting rights in the company, in an attempt to prevent the merger with Viacom.

(Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli; additional reporting by Liana B. Baker, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

By Jessica DiNapoli

Stocks mentioned in the article

Add to a list Add to a list 0 selected To use this feature you must be a member Log in Sign up	Price	Change	5d. change	Capi.
WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY, INC.	8.255 USD	+0.30%	-1.20%	20.08B
PARAMOUNT GLOBAL	10.9 USD	+0.79%	-3.28%	7.49B
VIACOM INC.	- USD	-.--%	+0.37%	9.86B
LINE CORPORATION	5,350 JPY	-.--%	-0.19%	12.52B

Sumner Redstone

Sumner Murray Redstone (born Sumner Murray Rothstein; May 27, 1923) is an American businessman and is a media magnate. He is the majority owner and Chairman of the Board of the National Amusements theater chain. Through National Amusements, Sumner Redstone and his family are majority owners of CBS Corporation and Viacom (itself the parent company of MTV Networks, BET, and the film studio Paramount Pictures), and are equal partners in MovieTickets.com. According to Forbes as of March 2014 he is worth US $6.2 billion. in Boston, Massachusetts, to Belle (née Ostrovsky) and Michael Rothstein. In 1940, his father changed the family surname from "Rothstein" to "Redstone" Michael Rothstein owned Northeast Theater Corporation in Dedham, Massachusetts—the forerunner of National Amusements—and the Boston branch of the Latin Quarter Nightclub. where he completed the studies for his baccalaureate in three years. Later, Redstone served as First Lieutenant in the United States Army during World War II After this military service, he worked in Washington, D.C., and attended Georgetown University Law School. He transferred to Harvard Law School and received his LL.B. in 1947.). He invested in Columbia Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Orion Pictures, and Paramount Pictures (Redstone's Viacom would buy Paramount in the 1990s), all of which turned over huge profits when he chose to sell their stock in the early 1980s.

In 1979, he suffered severe burns in a fire at the Copley Plaza hotel, in Boston, but survived after thirty hours extensive surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. Though he was warned that he might never be able to live a normal life, eight years later he was fit enough to insist on playing tennis nearly every day and to launch a hostile takeover of Viacom.

Career

Source @ Wikipedia

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