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.

Viacom

Looking for a new business to develop, he set his sights on Viacom International, a company that was a spin-off of CBS in 1971 after the FCC ruled that television networks could not syndicate programs they produced. Viacom syndicated most of CBS's programs, but also made a lot of money from syndicating other programs, including most of Carsey-Werner Productions' shows (The Cosby Show, Roseanne, and A Different World), as well as syndicating shows for other companies (Columbia Pictures Television's All In The Family was one notable example). Viacom also owned MTV Networks (formerly known as Warner-AMEX Satellite Entertainment), which owned MTV and Nickelodeon. In addition, other included properties included Showtime Networks (a similar pay-television network to HBO and Cinemax) and The Movie Channel. Viacom acquired MTV Networks in 1985 for $550 million from Steve Ross' Warner Communications (WCI bought American Express' share and then sold the entire entity to Viacom, as they felt that they could not make a lot of money from the venture and the bias that a studio owning cable channels would be a conflict of interest, which would change when Time Warner bought Turner Broadcasting in 1995).

Related Topics:
Viacom International - CBS - FCC - Television network - Syndicate - Carsey-Werner Productions - The Cosby Show - Roseanne - A Different World - Columbia Pictures Television - All In The Family - MTV Networks - MTV - Nickelodeon - Steve Ross - Warner Communications

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After a hostile takeover in 1987, Redstone won voting control of Viacom and led a series of acquisitions to make Viacom one of the top players in modern media (along with General Electric's NBC-Universal, News Corporation (parent of Fox), Time Warner, Sony, and The Walt Disney Company).

Related Topics:
Hostile takeover - General Electric - NBC-Universal - News Corporation - Fox - Time Warner - Sony - The Walt Disney Company

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