Redstone: Viacom CEO Attempts "Futile"

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman

Sumner Redstone's National Amusements issued a warning Tuesday to Viacom executives who are fighting to keep their board seats, telling them that their legal challenges are futile, according to CNN Money.

In a letter to the board, the movie theater chain, which owns 80% of Viacom's voting stock, defended recent actions that have prompted lawsuits from several top Viacom executives, including CEO Philippe Dauman, board member George Abrams and lead independent director Fred Salerno.

Those three are plaintiffs in suits that challenge the shakeups by alleging that Sumner Redstone lacks the mental capacity or that the actions are being orchestrated by Redstone's daughter, Shari, who they accuse of manipulating her 93-year-old father.

In the letter on Tuesday, Sumner Redstone and other National Amusements board directors wrote, "Needless to say, these highly personal and vicious attacks on Sumner's capacity and Shari's honesty and integrity are offensive and unacceptable. More importantly, however, those allegations, even if they could somehow be proven, would have no impact on the legitimacy of National's actions with respect to Viacom."

Redstone's current signature

Tuesday's letter called those legal actions "antagonistic to the interests of Viacom and its shareholders."

The letter goes on to make an assertion by way of hypothetical: Even if Redstone were mentally incapacitated and being unduly influenced, and even if Dauman and Abrams were reinstated as trustees, National Amusements contends that it would not "have the downstream effect of invalidating National's actions with respect to Viacom."

In other words, they would still be removed from Viacom's board.

The letter, like a court filing last week, included a squiggly line that served as Redstone's signature.