Sumner Redstone, who built media empire, dies at 97

M. Redstone — the billionaire entrepreneur who saw business as combat and his advancing years as no obstacle in building a media empire that encompassed CBS and Viacom — died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 97.

His death was announced in a statement by National Amusements, the private theater chain company founded by his father. No cause was given.

Redstone had vowed never to give up the reins of his conglomerate, but in February 2016 he stepped away from managing it, and his daughter, Shari E. Redstone, with whom he had a contentious relationship, took control of day-to-day affairs.

Beginning with a modest chain of drive-in movie theaters, Redstone negoSumner tiated, sued and otherwise fought to amass holdings that over time included CBS, the Paramount film and television studios, the publisher Simon & Schuster, the video retail giant Blockbuster and a host of cable channels, including MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. At their peak, the businesses were worth more than $80 billion.

Toward the end of his life, he controlled about 80% of the voting stock in

Viacom and CBS, presiding over both through National Amusements.

Redstone was a ripe 64 when he burst into the business limelight in 1987 by winning control of Viacom, a cable television operator at the time, from an investment group led by Viacom’s management. To acquire major companies, he frequently dueled with powerful, and much younger, entrepreneurs. In 1994, after a grueling struggle, he confounded Wall Street analysts by wresting Paramount from a heavily favored rival bidder, Barry Diller, who was almost 20 years his junior.

Well past 80, Redstone was running his businesses with little thought about retirement. One after another, associates who had been groomed to succeed him either resigned or were fired. In 1996, he dismissed his highly regarded chief executive, Frank Biondi Jr., and took the reins of Viacom himself. When critics suggested that at 72 he was too old for the top job, Redstone, at a news conference, compared himself to Bob Dole, the Republican candidate for president that year, who was the same age.

“If he can run America, believe me, I can run Viacom,” Redstone said.

Besides being an empire builder, Redstone was an innovator. He was a pioneer in the wide-scale adoption of multiplex cinemas. He conceived a revenue-sharing arrangement with film companies that radically changed the economics of the video rental business by convincing Hollywood that video stores — just like movie theaters — should be allowed to split revenues with filmmakers rather than pay flat fees. He also devised deals that allowed him to limit the risks and to share expenses involved in film production with other studios and investors.

He was born Sumner Murray Rothstein in Boston on May 27, 1923, to Max and Belle (Ostrovsky) Rothstein. He grew up in the predominantly Jewish West End. His father at the time peddled linoleum from the back of a truck; his mother was a housekeeper.

Sumner was accepted to Boston Latin, the city’s leading public school, and drove himself hard there.

It was during the summer after high school that his father changed the family name to Redstone.

He enrolled at Harvard, on a scholarship, as Sumner Redstone.

He breezed through Harvard in three years. Especially skilled in languages, he was invited to Washington during World War II to join a team of Army cryptographers in cracking Japanese military and diplomatic codes. He returned to Harvard after the war and received a law degree.

In 1947, Redstone married Phyllis Raphael, with whom he had a daughter, Shari, and a son, Brent.

In 1999, Redstone’s wife, Phyllis, filed for divorce after 52 years of marriage. In 2003, he married Paula Fortunato, a 40-year-old former schoolteacher. They divorced in 2009.

In addition to his daughter, Redstone is survived by his son as well as five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.