A Passion to Win »

Sumner Redstone is chairman and chief executive officer of Viacom. He maintains residences in New York and Newton, Massachusetts.

A titan of modern media, Viacom Chair-man Sumner Redstone reveals how he battled his way to become the head of one of the world's great media empires, and the richest man in entertainment.

David Rouse

Starting in 1954, Redstone built his father's chain of drive-in movie theaters into one of the world's largest media and entertainment companies. Viacom, the company he still heads at age 77, now includes Blockbuster, MTV, Nickelodeon, VH1, Paramount, Simon and Schuster (publisher of this tell-all by Redstone), Infinity Broadcasting, and CBS. Reading Redstone's candid account of how he built his empire and of the bitter negotiations often involved, one finds it easy to believe the normally fatuous disclaimer that "it's not about the money." Redstone is worth $14 billion, but " winning" the negotiations actually does seem to be what drives him, as he offers surprisingly frank opinions of those he has done battle with. Among those receiving particularly withering assessments are Wayne Huizinga (Blockbuster founder), Bill Fields (Wal-Mart second-in-command brought in by Redstone to "save" Blockbuster), Barry Diller (QVC head who waged a bidding war with Viacom over Paramount), and the press. This book will have people talking.—
Booklist

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue: The Fire This Time

1 Blockbuster Tanks

2 Breaking the Codes

3 National Amusements

4 Stick to What You Know

5 Viacom — the Opening

6 Viacom — the Battle

7 Viacom — Running the Show

8 I Want My MTV

9 The Paramount Deal

10 The Deal from Hell

11 To Hell and Back

12 The Shakeout

13 We Are All Viacom

14 The Turnaround

15 Eye on the Future

Index