Redstone

One part of Sumner M. Redstone's media empire took aim at the other Sunday, when Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures teamed up with two studios to create a premium television channel that would compete with Showtime Networks, which is owned by Viacom's sister company CBS Corp. The venture, as yet unnamed, could be risky, because the cable scene is already crowded with contenders airing feature films and developing original programming.

All chief executives are not equal in media mogul Sumner Redstone's empire, at least when it comes to what they are paid. Viacom Chief Executive Philippe P. Dauman last year earned 56% less than CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves, even though Viacom has a market capitalization 72% greater than CBS and performed substantially better. Dauman's compensation last year totaled $20.6 million, according to a proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

Since the public blow-up in July between Sumner Redstone and his daughter Shari over corporate governance and succession issues at their family-controlled entertainment empire, the 84-year-old chairman of Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. has been on a campaign to convince the world that the feud has blown over. In August, he orchestrated a family dinner in New York that was described by the New York Post as a rapprochement.

Was Sumner Redstone's obsession with the creator of the video game "Mortal Kombat" the root of the unfolding family drama that has pitted the media mogul against his daughter and onetime heir apparent, Shari Redstone? People who know them both suggest that the billionaire's dealings in the second-tier video game company Midway Games Inc. was a flashpoint in their ruptured relationship.

Thirteen years ago, when Sumner Redstone was busy building Viacom Inc. into a media powerhouse and needed a helping hand to run the family's theater chain, he turned to his daughter, Shari Redstone, who was home raising her three children. When theater circuits began going belly up in the late 1990s, it was Shari who kept National Amusements Inc. on track. She expanded the company globally, taking National into Russia and Latin America.

A Massachusetts state judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought against Viacom Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Sumner Redstone by his nephew, ruling that the plaintiff's allegation that he was defrauded by his uncle "arrived more than two decades too late." Michael Redstone, 50, claimed that he and his late sister, Ruth Ann, were cheated out of their shares of the Redstone family business in two stock sales his uncle engineered in 1972 and 1984.

In his twilight years, Sumner Redstone should be relaxed, fulfilled and enjoying the fruits of his labor. From a hardscrabble upbringing in a working-class neighborhood in Boston, Redstone has amassed a personal fortune of about $8 billion, making him one of America's richest men. The entertainment empire he built is among the world's largest, with CBS, Paramount Pictures, Showtime, MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

The conflict between media mogul Sumner Redstone and his daughter, Shari, broke into open warfare Friday when he publicly disparaged her as having made "little or no contribution" to the entertainment empire he built, which includes Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp. Redstone's comments, in a letter to Forbes magazine, and a subsequent statement issued on behalf of his daughter provide new insights into the mounting family feud over control of the media empire.

Shari Redstone first got the impression that there might be a move afoot to force her out of her family's media empire last summer when she failed to receive notices of some board meetings. Now, it could happen. At a time when she's planning for what should be a joyous family event -- the September wedding of her 25-year-old daughter -- Redstone, 53, is immersed in a bitter feud with her media mogul father, Sumner. The dispute could see her sever ties to CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc.

Billionaire media mogul Sumner M. Redstone on Wednesday announced pledges totaling $105 million to three medical centers involved in the research and treatment of burns and prostate cancer -- ailments with which the Beverly Hills resident has had personal experience. The Viacom Inc. executive chairman said he would give $35 million apiece to the Cedars-Sinai Prostate Care Center in Los Angeles; FasterCures/The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, based in Washington, D.C.