Viacom board votes to stop paying Sumner Redstone: WSJ

(Reuters) - Viacom Inc's board voted on Wednesday to stop paying 92-year-old controlling shareholder and Chairman Emeritus Sumner Redstone, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Viacom had cut the total pay of its billionaire chairman, who also owns a majority stake in CBS , by 85 percent to $2 million last year.

Redstone remains chairman emeritus, the Journal reported, citing the person. (http://on.wsj.com/1TpcXzZ)

Redstone is embroiled in a legal battle with his former girlfriend Manuela Herzer, who last week filed a new lawsuit that threatens to keep salacious allegations about his lifestyle alive.

Herzer filed the suit shortly after a California judge tossed her case seeking to be reinstated as the person designated to make his medical decisions if he was incapacitated.

She had argued that Redstone was not mentally competent and had been the victim of "undue influence" by people around him.

(Reporting by Natalie Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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