Quoted By:
>But in recent years, the company has been overshadowed by popular digital outlets like Netflix, Amazon and Snapchat and plagued by weak ratings and declines in advertising sales across several of its TV networks. At the same time, its film studio has delivered dismal results. “Ben Hur,” Paramount’s production with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, is expected to be yet another box-office disappointment.
>The resolution to the legal dispute left investors and analysts with a list of questions about the fate of Viacom: Would the company pursue a sale of Paramount? Will the Redstones push to reunite Viacom with CBS after the two companies split a decade ago? Will the genial Mr. Dooley, who is interim chief executive through Sept. 30, take on the chief executive title permanently?
>“You and I are buying a house together, and it is called a fixer-upper, darling,” Mario Gabelli, whose investment firm, Gamco, is the second-largest voting shareholder in Viacom and CBS, said in an interview when discussing the state of the company.
>“The main question is, what is Shari going to do?” added Mr. Gabelli, who said that he had met with Ms. Redstone twice in the last 12 months.
>The settlement, which Viacom’s board approved Thursday night, firmly put the fate of the company under the control of Mr. Redstone, who is in failing health, and his daughter. The board of National Amusements, the private theater chain company through which Mr. Redstone controls about 80 percent of the voting shares in Viacom and CBS, met later and approved the deal.
...
