Sumner Redstone

From Grokipedia

Sumner Murray Redstone (born Rothstein; May 27, 1923 – August 11, 2020) was an American media executive and billionaire businessman who transformed his family's Northeast Theatre Corporation, later renamed National Amusements, into a controlling force behind major media companies including Viacom and CBS Corporation. After serving as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he worked as a codebreaker deciphering Japanese military communications, Redstone earned degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Law School before joining the family business in the 1950s. He aggressively expanded National Amusements through acquisitions, notably gaining a controlling stake in Viacom in 1987, which under his leadership acquired Paramount Pictures and other assets, and engineered the $37 billion purchase of CBS in 2000, creating one of the world's largest media empires with channels like MTV, Nickelodeon, and BET. Redstone's tenure was marked by his mantra "content is king," emphasizing premium programming over distribution, but also by fierce corporate battles and personal controversies, including protracted family disputes over succession with his daughter Shari and son Brent, as well as lawsuits alleging elder abuse and mental incapacity in his later years involving former companions.

In brief

Sumner Redstone liked to say that content is king, and then he bought the kingdom. From his father’s theaters he climbed into cable, broadcast, and the Paramount lot.

He was a survivor in every sense — of a hotel fire, of board fights, of a very long old age. The companies merged and split around him. The voting stock stayed in the family hand he taught to keep it.