Viacom and Redstone’s National Amusements held settlement talks: WSJ

(Reuters) – Top Viacom Inc executives recently held discussions with National Amusements Inc to settle litigation surrounding the media empire of Sumner Redstone, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

However, the talks fell through last week, ahead of a key ruling by a Delaware judge on Friday, the WSJ reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Delaware judge ruled that Redstone’s lawyers must defend in a trial his move to oust five directors from Viacom’s board and suggested that he wants to get a better picture of the 93-year-old media mogul’s mental capacity.

Under the terms that were discussed by Viacom executives, Chief Executive Philippe Dauman would agree to depart the company and Chief Operating Officer Tom Dooley would become interim CEO, the Journal said.

Several board members of Viacom would also eventually relinquish their posts, the Journal said.

National Amusements is Redstone’s privately held movie theater company through which he owns 80 percent of Viacom.

(Reporting by Nikhil Subba in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)