Shari Redstone Launches Investment Firm

COMMENTS (4)

• Now tell the truth Shari, your father didn’t sell his stock in Midway Games. THE COMPANY WENT BANKRUPT AND DEAR OLD SUMNER LOST A LITTLE OVER $800,000,000 (yes 800 million bux.

  Comment by jerrywerbert — Friday August 26, 2011 @ 12:40pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Viacom GAVE that company away. They didn’t sell it. They GAVE it away.

  Comment by Martine — Friday August 26, 2011 @ 2:05pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Viacom had nothing to do with Midway Games. Sumner Redstone and National Amusement had controlling interest. Midway went BELLY UP.

    Comment by JERRYWERBERT — Friday August 26, 2011 @ 4:27pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Er, not exactly; you’re both half right. Shari ran Midway’s board of directors for the last few years of the Company, but Sumner was in control. He owned 87% of the stock. Sumner bought and bought Midway stock over a period of years, trusting the Company’s old bosses, his friends Lou and Neil Nicastro (who paid themselves very, very handsomely out of the company and their other companies, WMS Industries and a hotel spin-off). But after 2000, Midway was a dog and lost well over a billion dollars all told. By the time Sumner sold, he just wanted the huge tax loss. There was no saving the company. Now Warner Bros. has a hit with the new Mortal Kombat game, but Midway could never have paid all its debts. Midway did go belly up, but Sumner and Shari couldn’t do anything to prevent it. Viacom and Midway were both controlled by Sumner, so I wouldn’t say they has nothing to do with each other. Plus, they licensed IP from each other. Year after year, management told a rosy story about the company’s future, but it was, at best, a pipe dream.

  Comment by Clarifier — Wednesday August 31, 2011 @ 2:43pm PDT  Reply to this post