CBS Corp. chairman Sumner Redstone will miss the broadcaster’s annual meeting later this month.
“I had been planning on attending CBS’s 2015 Annual Meeting, but unfortunately will not be able to travel to New York for the event this year,” the 91-year-old controlling shareholder said in a statement provider to The Hollywood Reporter. “I hope to attend next year’s meeting.”
Redstone’s absence from the May 21 meeting in New York comes two months after he was a no show at Viacom’s annual shareholder meeting in Miami and a week after he shot down speculation that daughter Shari Redstone would succeed him at CBS and Viacom when he dies.
“Decisions about who will succeed me as chairman of CBS and Viacom will be made by the boards of the respective companies, and not by any individual,” Redstone said in statement issued to THR last week. “Despite press reports to the contrary, such decisions have not yet been made.”
The statement contradicts his emailed comments to Vanity Fair, where he said he’d attend the meeting.
The aging Viacom executive chairman and controlling shareholder, who turns 92 on May 27, has scaled back on public appearances over the past few years and was also notably absent from the earnings calls for both companies in February, causing speculation about his health.
