Shari Redstone

Shari Redstone became the executive vice president and later president of National Amusements. National Amusements owns Paramount Global (formerly CBS and Viacom) as well as movie theaters around the world. ¹

Background

Shari Redstone is the president of National Amusements, chair of the board of directors of Paramount Global, and former vice chair of Viacom/CBS. ¹ Shari Redstone joined National Amusements, a privately held company controlled by the Redstone family, in 1994 as executive vice president. Since 2000, Shari Redstone has been president of National Amusements. ¹ Redstone is also co-founder and co-managing partner of Advancit Capital, a venture firm investing in media, technology, and web3 startups. ²

National Amusements and Media Companies

National Amusements is a privately held company founded by Shari Redstone’s grandfather, Michael Redstone. ³ In 1954, Shari Redstone’s father Sumner joined his father and Sumner’s little brother in managing 12 drive-in theaters controlled by Redstone Management, the company later to become National Amusements. ³ National Amusements served as the private investment organization of the Redstone family to host businesses acquired by Redstone. ³

In 1977, after the movie Star Wars was released to great success, Sumner Redstone began purchasing stock in Twentieth Century Fox. ³ By 1981, he had acquired five percent of the company and sold the stock for at least $20 million. ³ In 1980, Sumner Redstone began acquiring stock in Columbia Pictures and sold it two years later for a $25 million profit. ³ Sumner Redstone continued this practice by purchasing MGM/United Artists stock and selling it for a $15 million profit in 1985. ³

By the mid-1980s, National Amusements operated around 400 movie screens across the country. ³ Sumner Redstone continued purchasing stock in Viacom and in 1987 completed a deal through National Amusements purchasing an 83 percent stock interest in Viacom valued at $3.4 billion. ³ National Amusements became the parent company to Viacom and through this acquisition obtained ownership of television stations MTV, Nickelodeon, Showtime, and TMC, as well as syndication rights to the “Bill Cosby Show” and worldwide distribution of TV shows. ³

In 1994, Viacom paid $10 billion to acquire Paramount Communications for the movie studio, theme parks, television stations, the USA Network, book publisher Simon & Schuster, Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks, and the New York Rangers. ³ After the Paramount acquisition, Sumner Redstone and National Amusements paid $8 billion for Blockbuster video and Spelling Entertainment Group. ⁴ At the time of these acquisitions, National Amusements operated 950 movie screens worldwide with increased expansion into South America and the United Kingdom. ³

In the late 1990s, Viacom was burdened with debt and sold Madison Square Garden, half of the USA Network, and most of Simon & Schuster. ³ In 2000, Viacom acquired CBS and split it into separate companies with Sumner Redstone serving as executive chairman of both. ⁵ In June 2005, Shari Redstone was named the nonexecutive vice chairman of Viacom and joined the CBS board six months later. ⁶ In 2016, Sumner Redstone retired as executive chairman of CBS. ⁷

Media Relationships

In 2002, Sumner Redstone divorced his first wife and married his second. ⁶ As part of the divorce, Sumner Redstone promised his first wife he would position Shari Redstone to succeed him as chairman of Viacom and CBS. ⁶ In 2005 to 2006, Sumner Redstone suggested possibly selling off the National Amusements theater chain run by Shari. ⁶ Shari Redstone responded by hiring a law firm to represent her in talks with her father that reportedly insulted Sumner Redstone. ⁶ By 2007, Sumner Redstone stated that Shari Redstone needed to “change her behavior” toward the chairs of Viacom and CBS and that Shari made “little or no contribution” to Viacom or CBS. ⁶

Merger of CBS and Viacom

In 2016, Shari Redstone fought to oust then-Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman and replace him with Bob Bakish. ⁸ In the summer of 2016, National Amusements owned 80 percent of the voting shares of Viacom and CBS and proposed a merger into a single company. ⁹ By December 2016, Shari Redstone withdrew the merger proposal of CBS Viacom. ¹⁰

In March 2018, CBS made an all-stock offer to acquire Viacom that was below market value. ¹¹ Viacom rejected the offer as too low. ¹¹ The proposed merger was also troubled when Shari Redstone insisted that Viacom’s CEO become the COO of the merged company, a proposal not favored by CBS CEO Leslie Moonves who was thought to be CEO of the merged company. ⁸ In May 2018, CBS sued National Amusements in an attempt to control the company. ¹² In September 2018, Moonves left CBS after sexual misconduct allegations and National Amusements agreed to not seek an imminent proposal for a merger between in CBS and Viacom. ¹³

After the departure of Moonves, who had opposed a merger, in 2019 CBS and Viacom began discussions of merging with the new entity to be run by Viacom’s Bob Bakish, a favorite of Shari Redstone’s. ¹⁴ The merger was completed in December 2019 dissolving the former companies and creating ViacomCBS. ¹⁵ In February 2022, ViacomCBS was rebranded to become Paramount Global. ¹⁶

Potential Sale of National Amusements

In December 2023, it was reported that Shari Redstone was in talks with Skydance, the media and entertainment company founded by David Ellison (son of the billionaire founder of Oracle), to sell a controlling interest in National Amusements. ¹⁷ BDT Capital Partners, the bankers for Redstone, began circulating nondisclosure agreements to private-equity firms to view National Amusement’s financial information in a search for prospective bidders for the company. ¹⁸

Political Contributions

Shari Redstone has given campaign contributions to both political parties including the DNC Services Corp., DNC PAC, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Colorado Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton (D), Ted Kennedy (D), David Cicilline (D), John Kerry (D), Republican National Committee, Republican Governors Association, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Republican Party of Massachusetts, William Weld (R), and Mitt Romney (R). ¹⁹