Moonves-Redstone Showdown Date Set

The legal fight between CBS and controlling shareholder National Amusements Inc. now has a trial date: Oct. 3 in Delaware Chancery Court, according to The NYPost.

CBS, led by Les Moonves, has also rescheduled its annual meeting, which will take place on August 10 in Pasadena, Calif.

The annual meeting, originally scheduled on May 18 in New York, was postponed after a week of fireworks ignited when CBS filed a lawsuit against NAI on May 14.

The suit charged NAI and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone with breaches of fiduciary duty for allegedly forcing CBS to merge with Viacom — another NAI-controlled entity — against the will of the CBS directors.

It also sought a temporary restraining order against NAI and Redstone to keep them from meddling in a special CBS board meeting to issue a stock dividend.

A majority of the CBS board passed the stock dividend on May 17, which had the intended effect of reducing NAI’s voting interest in the company from 79 percent to 20 percent. A day earlier, however, NAI amended the CBS bylaws to raise the board vote necessary to issue such a dividend from a majority to a supermajority.