Morning Wire: The Viacom Curse

Ask past top execs of Viacom like Mel Karmazin and he may tell you that Viacom is cursed. Ask the company’s two Former CEO’s Frank Biondi and the more recent Tom Freston and they will probably echo Mel’s answer. But why? Well, it is no secret that Viacom grand daddy Sumner Redstone is a control freak, and if he feels as though he lost an ounce of control he will pull the trigger on whoever took that ounce. This has been the case with many of his lieutenants over the years. One time CEO Frank Biondi, never saw it coming and was reportedly canned after not rolling Sumner’s way on things. Sumner likes CEO’s he can control, basically running the company via a human filter just in case something goes wrong a fall guy is in place. Former President & COO Mel Karmazin was at war with Sumner the day the CBS Viacom merger was completed. Sumner didn’t like the way the media was playing up Mel as his heir apparent. Sumner would purposely state in interviews that he isn’t going anywhere even echoing Newscorp CEO Rupert Murdoch’s legendary statement when he said he will be rolled out of Newscorp on a stretcher. Continued.... Mel Was frustrated that Sumner refused to layout a succession plan and left the company. Fast-forward to the present day and the latest victim of the Viacom curse is Tom Freston. Not only was Freston canned before hitting the one year mark, he was replaced with long time Redstone yes men. Was it a fair decision to can Freston without giving him a chance? The man was only on the job for 9 months, but Redstone and his greedy shareholders wanted miracles. But maybe just maybe, Redstone’s plan to split the company in two isn’t working for the Viacom side. But of course he would rather roll some heads than admit to that. Will Redstone’s new yes men fall victim to his ruthless CEO killing ways? Or will they act on his every word? We can only caution new CEO Philippe P. Dauman not to get too comfy, in Tom’s old office.