Redstone's National Amusements Removes Five Viacom Directors

Sumner Redstone's National Amusements removed five board members of Viacom Inc., setting up a likely high-stakes legal fight amid deepening turmoil in the mogul's $40 billion media empire.

National Amusements, the holding company through which Mr. Redstone controls Viacom, said in a statement that it has removed directors including Philippe P. Dauman, who is Viacom's CEO and a 30-year trusted confidant of Mr. Redstone.

Other ousted directors include George S. Abrams, Blythe J. McGarvie, Frederic V. Salerno and William Schwartz.

The newly elected directors are Kenneth Lerer, managing partner of a venture capital fund and chairman of BuzzFeed; Thomas May, chairman of Eversource Energy; Judith McHale, a former senior executive at cable programming giant Discovery Communications Inc.; Ronald Nelson, chairman of Avis Budget Group Inc. and Nicole Seligman, a former president of Sony Entertainment.

A Viacom spokesman had no immediate comment. Previously, people close to the company have signaled that Viacom directors would likely fight any removal by National Amusements in court.

In recent weeks, the 93-year-old Mr. Redstone, who is in poor health, has been overhauling his empire, which includes also includes CBS Corp. He ousted Messrs. Dauman and Abrams from the trust that will oversee his holdings after he dies or is incapacitated. He also booted them from his holding company, National Amusements.

Messrs. Dauman and Abrams have challenged those moves in a Massachusetts court, arguing that Mr. Redstone lacks the mental capacity to make these decisions and is under "undue" influence from his daughter, Shari Redstone, Viacom's vice chairman.

Write to Joe Flint at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 16, 2016 15:55 ET (19:55 GMT)

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