Billionaire media mogul Sumner Redstone dies at 97

Sumner Redstone.
(Image credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Billionaire media mogul Sumner Redstone died Tuesday, his family's holding company, National Amusements, announced in a statement Wednesday. He was 97.

Redstone built a media empire from National Amusements, a chain of drive-in theaters. Over several decades, he accrued holdings that included CBS, Paramount Pictures, Simon & Schuster, Blockbuster, and Viacom. At their peak, The New York Times reports, the businesses he controlled were worth more than $80 billion.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.