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Sumner Redstone resigns as chair of CBS

LOS ANGELES – Sumner Redstone, the ailing 92-year-old media mogul who controls TV and movie powerhouses CBS and Viacom, has stepped down as executive chairman of CBS amid a courtroom battle over his health and mental capacity. CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves will replace him as chairman.

Redstone’s resignation, which took effect Tuesday, is the near-final step to winding down his control of the giant entertainment companies he created out his father’s drive-in movie business starting in the 1950s. In a wrinkle to succession plans, Redstone’s daughter Shari said in a statement she had gone against her father’s stated intention that she succeed him and instead nominated Moonves as a “leader with an independent voice” who is not “otherwise intertwined in Redstone family matters.”

That preference suggests Viacom Inc.’s current CEO might not succeed Redstone as chairman at that company, whose board is meeting Thursday.

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, once Redstone’s trusted lawyer, holds authority to make medical decisions for Redstone if he is deemed incapacitated by his physician. Dauman is also a trustee in the trust that, upon Redstone’s death, would control his near 80 percent of voting shares in both CBS and Viacom, a fortune worth around $4 billion. Shari Redstone, also a trustee, is vice chair of both companies. Investors cheered the transition, sending CBS Corp. shares up 4.1 percent and Viacom shares up 10 percent in after-hours trading.

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