Media Mogul Sumner Redstone Dies At Age 97

arrives at The Hollywood Reporter's Annual Nominees Night party held at Spago on February 10, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA - FEBRUARY 10: Sumner Redstone arrives at The Hollywood Reporter's Annual Nominees Night party held at Spago on February 10, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Sumner Redstone, who built a media empire from his family’s drive-in movie chain, has died. He was 97.

Redstone built the company through aggressive acquisitions, but many headlines with his name focused on severed ties with wives, actors and executives. In multiple interviews, he said he’d never die.

His tight-fisted grip on the National Amusements theater chain, which controlled CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc. through voting stock, was passed to his daughter Shari Redstone, who battled top executives to re-merge the two entities that split in 2006.

Latest News
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: