Shari Redstone is preparing for a battle for control of her father’s Viacom and CBS media empire. Sumner Redstone’s daughter faces quite a fight, the New York Times reported Friday.
Although Redstone is a regular presence in her father’s home, insisting she had patched up their “very public” disagreements, their contentious history is predicted to cast a large shadow over the forthcoming court battles with his former companion, Manuela Herzer, and efforts to gain the upper hand with some of his confidants and hand-picked media executives.
“The rosy picture painted by Shari of her supposed reconciliation with her father is a smoke screen,” Herzer said in a recent declaration to the court. “Her sudden conversion to the loving, omnipresent daughter coincides with this epic battle” for control of his empire.
Examples of Redstone’s public disputes with her father included his criticizing her attempts to position herself to eventually succeed him as chairman of Viacom and CBS, and his writing a letter to Forbes saying his children had done little or nothing to help build the family empire.