Sumner's Folly

Many moons ago I interviewed Tom Freston and Sumner Redstone for a story I was doing on Viacom for Forbes Magazine. It was clear then as it is now that Freston was an unorthodox executive who fostered creativity in his colleagues, including Gerry Laybourne, who was then building Nickelodeon. Under Freston's watch most of Viacom's most valuable franchises were created, from MTV to Nickelodeon to Nick at Nite. As I sit here typing this my daughter is watching an episode of Sponge Bob, who is the "Bugs Bunny" of our day.

I guess Freston is being blamed for missing out on doing deals for MySpace and YouTube, but it seems to me that Viacom has done pretty well "building" rather than "buying." So to clip someone who helped make Viacom the media giant it is today seems crazy to me. Freston has built so many great Viacom assets that I am sure that he would have similar success on the Internet. I guess Sumner cant stand to see Rupert beating him in any arena.

Unfortunately for Viacom shareholders Sumner is a classic example of a business owner who is afraid to let go and obviously has trouble sharing the limelight. Biondi and Karmazin know this all too well. In fact when I interviewed Biondi, Sumner was sitting right next to him breathing down his neck. And I'm sure Sumner's kids could tell us a thing or two about his control freakishness. Freston is probably better off now, as is Biondi and Karmazin. Viacom shareholders? I'm not so sure.

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