Exclusive - Sumner Redstone ousts Viacom CEO and four directors from board

By Jessica Toonkel and Dan Levine

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone removed five of Viacom Inc's directors, including Chief Executive Philippe Dauman, from the media company's board, his holding company announced on Thursday.

It is the latest move in a fierce battle over the 93-year-old's $40 billion media empire. Dauman remains CEO, and he and the board are expected to contest Redstone's move.

Viacom representatives declined comment. The company's shares were up more than 5 percent after the announcement.

Redstone's privately held movie holding company, National Amusements, which owns 80 percent of voting shares of Viacom, filed with a Delaware Court to approve that the changes are legal.

 

National Amusements said it removed Dauman, George Abrams, lead independent director Fred Salerno and William Schwartz.

It said it replaced the directors with Kenneth Lerer, a venture capitalist and co-founder of the Huffington Post and chairman of Buzzfeed; Nicole Seligman, a former Sony executive, Judith McHale, the former head of Discovery Communications who was general counsel for MTV Networks; Thomas May, the chairman of Eversource Energy utility company and Ron Nelson, chairman and CEO of Avis Budget Group who used to work at DreamWorks and Paramount.

Redstone said on May 27 that he was considering removing Dauman and the board, citing dissatisfaction with the struggling company's strategy that includes a sale of a minority stake in Paramount Pictures.

At that time, Viacom's lead independent directors characterized such a move as "legally flawed" and said they would contest their ouster.

(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel and Dan Levine; Editing by Bill Rigby)