Profile: Viacom CEO Redstone
Sumner Redstone has been Chairman of the Board at Viacom Inc. since June 1987, when National Amusements - where he is President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board - acquired a controlling interest in the New York City-based company. Almost a decade later, Redstone took on additional responsibilities as CEO of Viacom.
One Wall Street analyst told The Washington Post that Viacom has become, "the dominant worldwide provider of entertainment programming."
"We've always had a singular vision," Redstone told the Post.
| CBS News Special Coverage | ||
 | ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
Since Redstone's arrival at Viacom, the company acquired Paramount Communications, Inc. and Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation, making it one of the world's largest entertainment companies.
Viacom's aggressiveness was fueled in part by the risk-taking Redstone, whose own remarkable rise from Depression-era poverty led to his purchase of Viacom.
Despite the fact that he was once quoted in The Post saying attorneys are "the worst dissipaters ohuman and economic resources I know," Redstone has been known to call on the services of his lawyers, as he did during his fight for Paramount.
As Viacom has grown, criticisms of Redstone have mounted, particularly after the ouster of his longtime deputy in 1996.
"It's hard to run a company on this scale with just the people they've got," one analyst told The New York Times. "It's particularly hard for a man who is in his 70's."
Redstone began his career as Law Secretary with the U.S. Court of Appeals, and then as a Special Assistant to the U.S. Attorney General. He joined National Amusements, Inc. in 1954, after having been a partner in the law firm of Ford, Bergson, Adams, Borkland and Redstone in Washington, D.C.