Low Key
While Sumner Redstone is a larger-than-life mogul who famously clung to a ledge during a hotel fire and fought multibillion-dollar takeover battles, his daughter is described as more down to earth. She does her homework, listens, shows good judgment and looks for new ideas to meet challenges, according to Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow.
Two decisions to be made in the post-Sumner world concern the high-profile CEOs, Viacom’s Dauman and CBS’s Les Moonves. Their contracts let them leave if they aren’t made chairmen of their companies after Sumner is gone. Shari Redstone is vice chair of both Viacom and CBS.
While CBS is thriving, Viacom, the owner of Nickelodeon and MTV, is losing younger viewers to online services, writing off investments in TV shows and cutting jobs.
“I know how respectful she is to Les in particular,” Packer said. “Philippe with Viacom is going through some issues.”
Viacom Reorganizes
CBS and Viacom officials declined to comment. Viacom has reorganized management of its cable networks and is taking steps to increase digital revenue, Dauman said on an April 30 conference call.
The elder Redstone celebrated his 92nd birthday last week in Los Angeles at a bash put on by his 43-year-old girlfriend. The guests, including Dauman and Moonves, were entertained by crooner Tony Bennett. Shari Redstone wasn’t invited; her son Korff, a lawyer and a rabbi, got clearance to attend only hours before the event, after landing in Los Angeles, according to a person with knowledge of the event who wasn’t authorized to discuss it and asked not to be named.
Shari Redstone, a lawyer trained at Boston University, has been most involved with the Norwood-based theater chain started by her grandfather in 1936.
She cuts a much lower profile than the women who populate lists like the Hollywood Reporter’s Power 100, which ranks influential female entertainment executives such as Bonnie Hammer, chairman of Comcast Corp.’s cable-TV channels, Stacey Snider, co-chairman of the 20th Century Fox film studio, and Oprah Winfrey.