Sumner Redstone, Billionaire Media Magnate, Dies At 97

TOPLINE

Sumner Redstone, the billionaire who built a media empire that counted CBS and Viacom among its holdings, died Tuesday at 97 according to a statement from National Amusements, the private theater chain founded by his father.

Sumner Redstone at a Hollywood movie premiere.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

KEY FACTS

“Sumner was a man of unrivaled passion and perseverance, who devoted his life to his belief in the power of content. With his passing, the media industry he loved so dearly loses one of its great champions,” National Amusements said in its statement.

National Amusements did not provide Redstone’s cause of death.

Redstone, whose net worth Forbes estimated to be $3 billion, was #804 on our 2020 Billionaires list, and #174 on the 2019 Forbes 400 list.

Redstone was the controlling shareholder for ViacomCBS, which merged in December 2019, and served as executive chairman of both companies until 2016, at the age of 92, amid pressure from shareholders and a lawsuit challenging his mental competence.

Redstone, who infamously said he would never retire and would live forever, amassed his empire through business deals, lawsuits and other negotiation tactics that, along with ViacomCBS, included Paramount’s television and movie studios, the publisher Simon & Schuster, video rental chain Blockbuster and cable channels like MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

In addition to stepping down from ViacomCBS, Redstone’s life was marked with a series of legal and public relations battles connected to his media empire, and his ferociousness was encapsulated by Warner Brothers distributor Barry Reardon in 1994: “Being a competitor of Sumner Redstone’s is a fate worse than death.”

Surprising fact

In 2006, at age 83, Redstone notably axed Paramount’s deal with A-list actor Tom Cruise’s production company. Redstone made it clear that Cruise’s couch-jumping antics on Oprah Winfrey’s television show, along with his stumping for Scientology, were the reasons for severing the relationship. “We don’t think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot,” Redstone told the Wall Street Journal at the time.

Crucial quote

“The most exciting things that have happened to me in my professional life have occurred after the fire but not because of it,” Redstone wrote about the 1979 fire he survived in his 2001 book, A Passion To Win. “It doesn’t take near death to bring you to life. Life begins whenever you want it to begin.”

Big number

$80 billion. According to the New York Times, that’s how much Sumner’s media empire was worth at its peak.

Key background

Sumner Murray Redstone was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 27, 1923. After graduating from Harvard College, Redstone was a World War II codebreaker. Following his return to civilian life, Redstone attended Georgetown and Harvard’s law schools to obtain his law degree. Afterwards, he worked for an assistant U.S. attorney and the Justice Department’s tax division. In 1954, Redstone made his first foray into the media world by joining his father’s company, National Amusements, and was made CEO in 1967. Redstone survived a Boston fire in 1979 that burned a good deal of his body and left him with lasting medical issues. From 2006, Redstone was locked in a public battle with daughter Shari Redstone over future control of his media empire, clashing over succession plans. Eventually, Shari Redstone took over daily operations in 2016, and told Forbes in October 2019, “No matter how hard or challenging it got, I tried to keep my head down, fight for what was right and not read the press.”