Sumner Redstone

Sumner M. Redstone, born Sumner Murray Rothstein, May 27, 1923 in Boston, Massachusetts, is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom.

Paramount Pictures

Redstone's next acquisition came in the form of the purchase of Paramount Communications, parent of Paramount Pictures, in 1993, which he fought over with Barry Diller (former board member of Vivendi Universal and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp) and John Malone (president of TCI/Liberty Media), where he had to raise his bid three times. Some say that Redstone overpaid, but after he shed certain assets (the Madison Square Garden properties to Chuck Dolan's Cablevision and Simon & Schuster's educational publishing units to Pearson plc for almost $4 billion), Redstone turned Paramount's expenditure into a substantial profit.

Related Topics:
Paramount Communications - Paramount Pictures - Barry Diller - IAC/InterActiveCorp - John Malone - TCI - Liberty Media - Madison Square Garden - Chuck Dolan - Cablevision - Simon & Schuster - Pearson plc

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The Paramount acquisition was only the tip of the iceberg. Redstone purchased Blockbuster Entertainment, which included Aaron Spelling's production company and a huge library of films, much of which has been merged into Paramount Pictures. Blockbuster has now been spun off into its own independent entity.

Related Topics:
Blockbuster Entertainment - Aaron Spelling

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