After spending decades building a huge and diverse media empire, Sumner Redstone was shocked to find himself in an unusually vulnerable position late last week, forced to sell off a big chunk of his holdings in Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp.

Mr. Redstone had used his prized stakes in those two publicly held media giants, which he controls, to help back a $1.6 billion loan to expand his family’s movie-theater chain. On Monday, Mr. Redstone’s family holding company, National Amusements, announced it had completed the sale of $233 million of Viacom and CBS shares in the market to avoid breaching its bank covenants.

Through a spokesman, Mr. Redstone, 85 years old, declined to comment. According to people familiar with the situation, he was caught off guard by the turn of events, and National Amusements spent much of the weekend negotiating with its banks and sifting through its assets for alternative sources of funding.

So far, Mr. Redstone has sold only nonvoting stock, leaving his control of Viacom and CBS intact. But he could be forced to sell more stock if the companies’ share values fall below their levels on Friday.

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