# National Amusements The privately held movie-theater chain and holding company through which the Redstone family controlled [[Viacom]], [[CBS News]], and [[Paramount Global]] for decades. Founded in 1936 as a New England drive-in theater operator by Michael Redstone, National Amusements (NAI) grew into the supervoting control vehicle at the apex of one of the largest American media empires. Through a dual-class share structure that separated economic ownership from voting power, NAI held roughly 80 percent of the voting shares in [[Paramount Global]] while owning only about 10 percent of total equity — a textbook case of [[Media Consolidation]] achieved through corporate governance rather than outright ownership. ## The Redstone Dynasty [[Sumner Redstone]] transformed his father's regional theater chain into a media conglomerate by acquiring [[Viacom]] in 1987 and then CBS in 1999, merging and re-splitting the companies as strategy dictated. Redstone's controlling philosophy — "content is king" — drove decades of expansion across cable networks, film studios, and publishing. His bitter family feuds, particularly with daughter [[Shari Redstone]] and son Brent, played out publicly in boardrooms and courtrooms throughout the 2000s and 2010s. After [[Sumner Redstone]]'s cognitive decline and eventual death in 2020, [[Shari Redstone]] assumed the NAI chairmanship and full control of the Paramount empire. She oversaw the 2019 re-merger of Viacom and CBS into [[Paramount Global]], consolidating the family's holdings under a single publicly traded entity while maintaining NAI's supervoting grip. ## The Dual-Class Control Structure NAI's power derived entirely from a dual-class share architecture common among legacy media dynasties (the Murdoch family used the same mechanism at [[Fox Corporation]]). Class A shares carried enhanced voting rights and were held exclusively by NAI; Class B shares traded publicly with diminished votes. This meant that public shareholders bore the economic risk while the Redstone family made the strategic decisions — a governance arrangement that drew persistent criticism from institutional investors and proxy advisory firms but proved legally unassailable. ## The Skydance-Paramount Sale (2024–2025) By 2023, [[Paramount Global]] was struggling with linear-TV decline, streaming losses, and a depressed stock price. Multiple suitors circled, but [[Shari Redstone]] ultimately chose [[David Ellison]]'s Skydance Media after months of turbulent negotiations. The deal closed on August 7, 2025, as a two-part transaction. First, Skydance and RedBird Capital acquired NAI's supervoting stake outright, ending the Redstone family's control. Then Skydance merged into [[Paramount Global]] in an all-stock deal valuing Skydance at $4.75 billion. [[David Ellison]] became chairman and CEO of the combined [[Skydance-Paramount]], while [[Jeff Shell]] (formerly of NBCUniversal) assumed the presidency. [[Shari Redstone]] exited the board entirely, closing out nearly four decades of Redstone family dominion over Paramount and CBS. The merged company also settled a $16 million lawsuit brought by [[Donald Trump]] against CBS over an edited 60 Minutes interview — a settlement [[Shari Redstone]] later called "a no-brainer," underscoring how political pressure shaped the transaction's final terms. ## Why It Matters National Amusements is a case study in how dual-class share structures enable family dynasties to control vast media empires with minimal economic exposure. The Redstone saga — from drive-in theaters to a multibillion-dollar streaming-era exit — illustrates the lifecycle of concentrated media ownership and the governance tensions it creates between controlling families, public shareholders, and the political environment. ## See Also - [[Paramount Timeline]] - [[CBS Timeline]] - [[Media Consolidation]] - [[Fox Corporation]] — comparable dual-class media dynasty under [[Rupert Murdoch]]