CBS Chief’s Stake Costs Shareholders $5 Billion

Breakingviews: Sumner Redstone, 92, says he plans to live forever. If that doesn’t work out, his empire will be controlled by a trust. Either way, ending the dual-class share structure at the $21 billion CBS could lift the value of the U.S. broadcaster by 20 percent. The price of doing so would be more than worth it for shareholders. Collapsing the CBS shares with voting power into one class of equal voting stock would enable it to be valued more like Time Warner. That would translate into a market cap of $26 billion, an uplift of some $5 billion.