Sumner Redstone offered his daughter, Shari, $1 billion in November 2014 to cash out her 20% stake in National Amusements Inc., the holding company that controls Viacom Inc. and CBS Inc.,
the
Wall Street Journal
reported.
The deal “would have required her to relinquish her right to become chairman of the two companies upon her father's death, and not to contest the gifts Mr. Redstone had bestowed upon the two women who lived with him,” the
Journal
article said. The gifts made to Sydney Holland, 44, and Manuela Herzer, 51, “were so large that Mr. Redstone could owe $100 million in taxes on them,” the article said. Under the proposed deal, National Amusements would lend the money to cover the taxes, the
Journal
reported.
The article said that Redstone and his daughter have had periods of estrangement; at one point they communicated only by fax. “In recent months, she has been repairing their relationship, visiting him regularly,” the
Journal
reported.
Upon Sumner Redstone's death or incapacitation, his nearly 80% voting stake in the two companies will pass to an irrevocable trust that will be controlled by seven trustees: Shari Redstone and her son, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, and four lawyers, the article said.
The article noted that the women were asked to leave the home of 92-year-old Sumner Redstone this fall, and that after they left, his daughter began visiting him again. “Neither of the companions is expected to receive anything close to what they had originally been promised in earlier versions of Mr. Redstone's will,” the article said. Herzer has filed a lawsuit to be reinstated as Sumner Redstone's health agent.
The article said Shari signed a 2009 document that said she would become only the non-executive chairman of CBS and Viacom upon her father death, although there is grounds for disputing whether this document would trump the terms of the trust, the article said. (Source:
Wall Street Journal
, Dec. 20, 2015.)
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