In a move that further undermines Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, the company's controlling shareholder said Monday it amended Viacom's bylaws to require unanimous board approval for any full or partial sale of movie studio Paramount Pictures.
The action further consolidates control in the hands of ailing media mogul Sumner Redstone and his daughter, Shari Redstone. The elder Redstone has said he's against the Paramount sale. Dauman said in February he was aiming to take on a strategic minority investor in Paramount by the end of June.
National Amusements Inc., which controls 80 percent of the voting stock in both Viacom and CBS Corp., announced the change. National Amusements, a theater chain, is controlled by the Redstones.
A spokesman for Viacom Inc. called Monday's action "illegitimate" and "completely at odds with good corporate governance."
It's the latest twist in the battle over the multibillion-dollar conglomerates and came a day before a trial gets underway in a Massachusetts probate court into whether 93-year-old Sumner Redstone is mentally competent.
The trial is being brought by Dauman and lawyer George Abrams, both of whom were replaced as directors of National Amusements and trustees in the trust that will control it when Sumner Redstone dies. They contend that Redstone was not mentally capable of making the decision to remove them from the posts.
Viacom shares closed up nearly 1 percent at $45.43 on Monday before the announcement. The stock, however, has lost nearly half its value since July 2014.
In a court filing, the elder Redstone said he had lost faith in Dauman's management of Viacom, according to a statement by geriatric psychiatrist James Spar, who evaluated him in May. Spar is quoted as saying in the filing that Redstone had told Dauman has "done a bad job running Viacom." Redstone also said of Abrams, "he's not listening to me," according to Spar's report.
Full Lineup Set For AFI Fest; Official Selections Span 44 Countries, Include 9 Best International Feature Oscar Submissions
The American Film Institute (AFI) has unveiled the full lineup for this year’s AFI Fest, taking place in Los Angeles from October 23-27. Rounding out the slate of already announced titles are such highlights as September 5 directed by Tim Fehlbaum, All We Imagine As Light directed by Payal Kapadia, The Luckiest Man in America directed by Samir Oliveros (AFI Class of 2019), Zurawski v. Texas from executive producers Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and Jennifer Lawrence and directors Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and Oh, Canada directed by Paul Schrader (AFI Class of 1969). A total of 158 films are set to screen at the 38th edition of AFI Fest.
Of the official selections, 48% are directed by women and non-binary filmmakers and 26% are directed by BIPOC filmmakers.
Additional festival highlights include documentaries Architecton directed by Victor Kossakovsky; Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie directed by David Bushell; Devo directed by Chris Smith about the legendary new wave provocateurs; Gaucho Gaucho directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw; Group Therapy directed by Neil Berkeley with Emmy® winner Neil Patrick Harris and Tig Notaro; No Other Land directed by a Palestinian-Israeli team comprised of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor and Hamdan Ballal; Pavements directed by Alex Ross Perry; and Separated directed by Errol Morris. Notable narrative titles include Black Dog (Gou Zen) directed by Guan Hu; Bonjour Tristesse directed by Durga Chew-Bose with Academy Award® nominee Chloë Sevigny; Caught By The Tides directed by Jia Zhangke; Hard Truths directed by Mike Leigh with... Read More