That makes him both companies’ No. 2 owner after Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements with almost 80%.
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Mario Gabelli, the second-largest voting shareholder in Viacom Inc VIAB.
On Monday, the WSJ reported that a California judge had denied Herzer’s request to accelerate the legal process to determine whether Redstone is mentally competent to make his own decisions.
“I don’t think the company is rudderless because Redstone is in ill health, but I do think the issue has created more noise lately because of the lawsuit”, said Michael Cuggino, president and portfolio manager at San Francisco-based Permanent Portfolio of Family Of Funds, which is the fifth-largest voting shareholder in Viacom.
The chairman of the Viacom board’s Governance and Nominating Committee, William Schwartz, says: “As has been widely and publicly disclosed, Mr. Redstone’s physicians have publicly attested that he is mentally capable, and this information is consistent with other medical and other information available to me”.
Herzer filed the lawsuit November 25, weeks after being kicked out of Redstone’s Los Angeles-area home.
Gabelli has contacted Viacom about Redstone but has not heard back yet, Reuters reports.
“They should make him chairman emeritus”, he suggested. Gabelli told Reuters that he left a message at Viacom on Tuesday, but he did not specify the name of the person that he called. Gabelli said he represented about 2000 clients, some of whom have been investors in Viacom and/or CBS for more than two decades. Gabelli said he reached out to Philippe Dauman, Viacom’s chief executive officer, Wednesday, as well as other Viacom executives to gain greater clarity on the matter.
“Too many people are calling me and saying: ‘What’s going on?’ ” Gabelli told Reuters.
Amid the uncertainty, Wall Street investors sold off Viacom shares on Wednesday, pushing them down 4 percent, to $49.61.
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Despite his rapidly deteriorating condition, he is obsessed with eating steak and “demands, to the extent he can be understood, to engage in sexual activity every day, even though Dr. Gold has repeatedly recommended that he abstain from daily sexual activity”, according to court documents filed in an LA County Superior Court, reports The New York Post.
