Shari Redstone has resigned as Chairman and a director of Midway Games Inc., the electronic games maker controlled by her father, Sumner Redstone. She cited the need to focus on refinancing the debt of National Amusements Inc. (NAI), the company by which the Redstones control both CBS Corporation and Viacom.
“I was honored to serve on the Midway Board for the past four years, most recently as its Chair. With my recent appointment to the Special Committee of the National Amusements Board of Directors, I am resigning from the Midway Board to focus on these responsibilities” said Shari Redstone, in a statement issued by Midway.
The video games company’s board named AMC Entertainment Chairman and CEO Peter C. Brown as its new Chairman. He had been a director since 2005.
NAI, of which Shari Redstone is President, owns just shy of 25% of Midway’s stock, according to the company’s last proxy. Sumner Redstone personally owns another 62%-plus.
NAI recently sold $233 million of CBS and Viacom stock to avoid violating a loan covenant, but Sumner Redstone has vowed that the company will not sell any more of its CBS and Viacom stock. Shari Redstone is one of the three NAI directors negotiating with lenders to refinance $800 million of debt which comes due next month – about half of NAI’s $1.6 billion total debt.
RBR/TVBR observation: As much as the Redstones disagree, it seems that Shari has been working to support even the business decisions of her father that she didn’t agree with. She never thought much of Sumner’s stock acquisitions at Midway Games, yet she agreed to join its board and even served as Chairman for some time.
