SpringOwl Asset Management, an activist investment firm, has called for Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone and CEO Philippe Dauman to step down,
Bloomberg reported.
Redstone, 92, controls 80% of Viacom’s voting stock.
Redstone stopped participating in earnings calls and appearing at company events last year. A former girlfriend has filed a lawsuit that contends he was incompetent when she was removed as his health care agent, the Bloomberg article said.
The Bloomberg report said Viacom’s stock rose 4.7% after SpringOwl called for Redstone and Dauman to leave.
Meanwhile, Dauman has hired a personal legal team in an effort to block a subpoena for his testimony in the suit brought by the former girlfriend, Manuela Herzer. Dauman is Redstone’s current health care agent.
A
Wall Street Journal
report
said Dauman was served with a subpoena in the Herzer case on January 5, requiring him to be deposed on January 26. Dauman’s attorneys argue that his deposition “wouldn’t be relevant to the case, given his lack of medical expertise,” the
Journal
article said. The attorneys also say the subpoena is “part of a public-relations campaign to ‘harass’ Mr. Redstone and violate his privacy,” the article said. (Sources: Bloomberg, Jan. 19, 2016;
Wall Street Journal
, Jan. 20, 2016.)
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