Sex, Lies and a Boardroom Battle
James Stewart and Rachel Abrams have really written
two books. The first is about the sexual proclivities of the media mogul and
Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone and the second one is about the boardroom battle for
the control of CBS which also involves the sexual proclivities of its CEO
Leslie Moonves.
Sumner Redstone, a self-made billionaire, who in his
80’s has two live in paramours who try to take him for all he has got. The two
paramours Sidney Holland and Manuela Herzer end up with over $150 million and
almost succeeded in taking over his entire estate. They ultimately fail because
Redstone’s estranged daughter Shari prevails in a legal fight to gain control
over her father’s estate. The Redstone family seems to have put the “dys” into
its dysfunctionality.
The second part of the book deals with Shari Redstone
gaining control over CBS in an epic battle with Les Moonves. There are quite a
few of boardroom machinations, but Moonves falls victim to the investigative
reporting of the New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow. Moonves’ very aggressive behavior
towards too many women finally caught up to him in the growing #MeToo climate.
What is striking is that the CBS board was very nonchalant in dealing with all
of the accusations facing Moonves. If Moonves didn’t mislead his board and its
attorneys from the start, he just might have survived. Further all of the
incidents discussed occurred prior to his becoming CEO of CBS. All of this
corporate dysfunction is going on when CBS and Viacom should have been focusing
on the competitive threat coming from streaming.
It is obvious that Shari Redstone talked the writers
into adopting her view as to all that happened with her father and CBS. My
guess is that her version of the events described are not quite accurate and she
might be far from the aggrieved daughter depicted in the book.
Nevertheless, despite overdoing their view of “white male privilege” when they are really talking about the privileges of the very rich and powerful, Stewart and Abrams have brought us a behind the scenes of view of what can happen in the upper echelons of the media business.
For the full Amazon URL see: Sex, Lies and a Boardroom Battle (amazon.com)
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