Sumner Redstone Paved the Way for Zuckerberg, Bezos and Musk
Although the media world has become tamer, the mogul’s brash brand of imperial control can be seen in the technology sphere.
“Winning is everything,” Sumner Redstone said.
Photographer: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Sumner Redstone, the swashbuckling billionaire who built what is now ViacomCBS Inc., died on Tuesday at 97. He used to say that he would never have a legacy because he planned to live forever. News reports would qualify it as a joke, though with Redstone no one could be entirely sure. His hard-charging leadership style and dealmaking were of a bygone era, but he earned a legacy even if he didn’t want one: It lives on in the outsize personalities who wield singular control of their companies such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. They are perhaps this generation’s Redstones, albeit a water-downed version of the cast of characters that ran the media world in its heyday. Redstone would have relished the opportunity to try to outwit any one of them.
The Boston native became a media mogul at an age when most are retiring. A gruesome near-death experience in a Boston hotel fire in 1979 fortified his survivor mentality, which underpinned every business move he made. “Winning is everything,” he said while taking a break from a tennis match in 1999 at the industry’s annual summit in Sun Valley, Idaho, terrain Redstone once ruled alongside rivals Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller and John Malone. Redstone’s grit and stubbornness were legendary, as were his wrath — ask any of his banished successors along the way — and wry sense of humor. “Legacies are for dead people,” he would say. And well into his 90s, when he was bedridden and no longer able to speak, an iPad was reportedly programmed to give the three responses only he would need: “Yes,” “no” and a curt vulgar dismissal. Logan Roy, the central character in the HBO hit series “Succession,” is said to be inspired by Redstone and Murdoch.