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Viacom director has uphill battle in case against Redstone

Published Sun, Jun 19, 2016 · 09:50 PM
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IT'S ALL up to a Delaware court now.

In the most telegraphed corporate move of the year, National Amusements, the company controlled by Sumner Redstone, moved to remove five directors of Viacom, including Philippe Dauman, Viacom's chief executive, who remains in his job for now.

Litigation promptly ensued as National Amusements filed in a Delaware court to validate these actions and Viacom's lead independent director, Frederic Salerno, countered with his own suit.

We have the beginning of the end of a messy legal battle as a Delaware court will determine whether these five Viacom directors stay, and by implication, Mr Dauman as chief executive. The question is, Who has the better case?

National Amusements' legal argument is relatively straightforward. It will argue that it is the controlling shareholder of Viacom and has been since the mid-1980s. As a controlling shareholder, it has wide discretion to remove and replace directors…

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