Sumner Redstone

Sumner Murray Redstone (born Sumner Murray Rothstein; May 27, 1923) is an American businessman and media magnate. He is the majority owner and chairman of the board of the National Amusements theater chain. Through National Amusements, Redstone and his family are majority owners of CBS Corporation and Viacom (itself the parent company of Viacom Media Networks, BET Networks, and the film studio Paramount Pictures). According to Forbes, as of September 2015, he was worth US$5 billion. Redstone was formerly the executive chairman of both CBS and Viacom. In February 2016, at the age of 92 - a week after a court-ordered examination by a geriatric psychiatrist - Redstone resigned both chairmanships, was succeeded by Leslie Moonves at CBS and Philippe Dauman at Viacom, and became chairman emeritus. 2Early life and education Sumner was born to a Jewish family in Boston, Massachusetts, to Belle (née Ostrovsky) and Michael Rothstein. In 1940, at Sumner's behest, his father agreed to change the family surname from "Rothstein" to "Redstone" ("Red stone" is a literal translation of the German-Jewish name, "Rothstein"). Michael Rothstein owned Northeast Theater Corporation in Dedham, Massachusetts (the forerunner of National Amusements) and the Boston branch of the Latin Quarter Nightclub. Redstone attended the Boston Latin School, from which he graduated first in his clas