Sumner Redstone, who took his family’s chain of drive-in movie venues and turned it into a multibillion-dollar media business, has died at the age of 97.
The business included both CBS and Viacom, which again merged into a single company last December.
According to Variety, Redstone passed away at his home in Los Angeles.
In the 1980s Redstone took control of Viacom, which was behind some of the leading US cable channels, including MTV and Nickelodeon.
A decade later he had Paramount Pictures in his sights, before also taking control of the CBS broadcast network.
He leaves a son Brent Redstone, and daughter, Shari Redstone, who is now chair of ViacomCBS. She also owns
holding company for the newly combined ViacomCBS.
