CBS has rescheduled its annual shareholder meeting for Aug. 10 at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena, according to documents filed with the SEC.
The board of directors postponed the session, which had been originally scheduled for May 17, amid a high-stakes clash with the media companys controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone.
A majority of the board voted to dilute Redstones control over CBS by distributing voting stock to all CBS shareholders. Its a move intended to dilute Redstones control over the network through the familys National Amusements, reducing its voting interest from 80% to 20% .
National Amusements changed the companys bylaws to effectively negate that vote.
The dispute over the legitimacy of the board vote is now playing out in a Delaware court. CBS has asked the court to invalidate the bylaw change and allow the boards vote to stand — thereby lessening Redstones control over the broadcaster and her purported interference in its business.
National Amusements fired back at CBS, calling its actions “extraordinary” and “unjustified.”
CBS has accused National Amusements, which controls nearly 80% of it and Viacom, of degrading the value of CBS by trying to force a merger of the two companies, a charge NAI has consistently refuted and did so again repeatedly in its complaint. Merger talks broke down earlier this year over disagreements about the management team and financial terms.
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