Viacom cuts outlook says boardroom fight hurts business

Viacom cuts its earnings outlook Friday, blaming in component the high-stakes battle over control of the entertainment giant.

One day after the girl of Viacom's elderly primary shareholder Sumner Redstone shifted to oust key users of the board of directors, the company stated it now expects income per share in the current quarter ahead in at just $1. 00-$1. 05, far shy from the average analyst estimate associated with $1. 38.

Viacom stated the company suffered within the quarter from poor box-office sales of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" film.

Viacom said this now expects earnings for each share in the current quarter to come within at just $1. 00-$1. 05, far shy of the average analyst estimate of $1. 38 ?Chris Hondros (Getty/Getty Images/File)
Yet it also said that an important agreement on streaming video on demand, a single of the fastest-growing segments of the entertainment market, had been delayed due to the fight between a group led simply by chairman and chief professional Phillipe Dauman and vice chair Shari Redstone over who will control the group when her 93-year-old father dies.

The company said in a statement that it got expected to complete the "significant" SVOD agreement within the current quarter. However, it said, "the recent and highly public governance controversy negatively impacted the particular timing and its ability to achieve an optimal outcome with partners. "
The particular announcement came hours after Sumner Redstone's National R�cr�ation Inc, which has eighty percent control of Viacom, announced the removal of Dauman and four of his allies on the board associated with directors.

Their substitutes, allies of Shari Redstone, would strengthen her hands on the board.
Viacom shares, which leaped on Thursday on the move to shuffle the particular board, fell 1. 4 percent to $44. 44 in late trade Fri.
But the board shift remains pending the resolution of a lawsuit submitted within a Delaware court by among the dismissed directors, Frederic Salerno, seeking to prevent it.
Salerno branded the latest move a "brazen and demonstrably invalid attempt" by Shari Redstone to take over the $40 billion entertainment business, which controls hit names like MTV, Nickelodeon, and Humor Central, as well since Hollywood giant Paramount Images.

Salerno alleged that Sumner Redstone had always meant that independent professionals rather than family members run the organization after he passes away.
Nevertheless , he said, Redstone "is being manipulated plus utilized by his daughter in an attempt to achieve her long-held goal associated with gaining complete control associated with Viacom. "
On Fri Dauman pressed a Ma court to quickly purchase a medical examination of Sumner Redstone to show he is not psychologically competent to make the decisions attributed to him simply by his daughter and lawyers.

In an earlier filing, Dauman characterized Redstone bokep stw because "a 93-year-old man struggling from overwhelming physical illnesses, including an inability in order to speak, stand, walk, eat, write or read. inch
Questions are ongoing over whether the 93-year-old Sumner Redstone is mentally competent to sign off upon major corporate moves ?Robyn Beck (AFP/File)
There offers been an ongoing inner struggle at Viacom among a group led by chairman and chief executive Phillipe Dauman (pictured) and vice chair Shari Redstone over who will control the group when the 93-year-old Sumner Redstone dies ?Sajjad Hussain (AFP/File)