“This is a brazen and demonstrably invalid attempt by Ms. Redstone to gain control of Viacom and its management in disregard of Sumner Redstone’s wishes and to undermine the current Board’s ability to represent the best interests of all of the stockholders of Viacom”.
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Though Dauman will continue to be the CEO as of now and he along with the other four will remain on the company’s board till a DE court confirms the alterations but it could be a prelude Dauman being moved out of the company completely.
Dauman is fighting moves by the Redstone camp to oust him from key positions in the Redstone media empire, and probably Viacom itself.
Viacom adds in a release that domestic ad sales for its cable networks likely will fall 4%, although it has “substantially completed” what it calls “a very successful annual advertising upfront sales process”.
In a May 23 lawsuit filed in Massachusetts, Dauman and Abrams are contesting their removal from Redstone’s family trust and the board of National Amusements Inc, the holding company for Redstone’s voting shares.
Viacom shares, which jumped on Thursday on the move to shuffle the board, fell 1.4 percent to $44.44 in late trade Friday.
The move came after National Amusements amended Viacom corporate bylaws that mean a sale of a portion or all of Paramount Pictures must be unanimously agreed by Viacom’s board of directors.
They will sit alongside Viacom COO Tom Dooley, Cristiana Falcone Sorrell, Deborah Norville, Charles Phillips Jr., chairman emeritus Sumner and non-executive vice chairman Shari Redstone. The trust will control Redstone’s stake after he dies or is declared mentally incompetent. It blamed the latter on “the recent and highly public governance controversy”.
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On Friday, Viacom said its third-quarter earnings will miss Wall Street estimates, marking the first time since October 2008 that it has put out such guidance. On average, analysts had forecasted a profit of $1.38 a share, Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data showed.
