Posted:
12:41:16 on February 01 2002
By: Alexander Chase
Dept: General Star Trek
The Internet Movie Database reported today, based on reporting by the Los Angeles Times and New York Times, that Viacom Chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone has failed in his attempt to oust Viacom's President and COO Mel Karmazin, and that Karmazin will continue to run Viacom, which owns Paramount Pictures, CBS and UPN.
"In what was depicted by some analysts as a defeat for Viacom Chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone, a group of company directors Wednesday intervened in his reported dispute with President and COO Mel Karmazin, telling the two to work out their differences privately, according to published reports. Word of the directors' action followed news that Redstone was attempting to force Karmazin out of the company, which owns Paramount Pictures, CBS, UPN, MTV and Showtime, among other holdings... citing an unnamed source, Karmazin told the board he will not seek to renew his contract when it expires next year. At Wednesday's board meeting... Redstone, Karmazin, CBS president Les Moonves and Viacom Entertainment chairman Jonathan Dolgen were asked to leave the room before the Redstone-Karmazin affair was addressed."
Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen later commented to the LA Times, "In the 18 years I've been analyzing companies, I've never heard of another board doing something like that."
To read the original Internet Movie Database report, check out this page.
