Overview

"In one of the most fascinating business autobiographies of this year, Sumner Redstone tells the unvarnished story of how he overcame every obstacle to build a vast media and entertainment engine that includes Paramount, MTV, Simon & Schuster, CBS, Nickleodeon and Blockbuster. A larger-than-life figure in the grand tradition of the Hearsts, Paleys and Pulitzers, and voted by 600 corporate executives as the number one most inspiring CEO, this is the man who can truely say ""I am Viacom"". ""A Passion to Win"" gives a riveting look behind the scenes at the highly charged negotiations that won Redstone both Viacom and Paramount. The book reveals Redstone's head-to-head confrontations with such adversaries as Barry Diller and H.Wayne Huizenga. Born in a Boston tenament Redstone went through Harvard in three years, was chosen for a special cryptography unit in the US Army whose assignment was to crack Japanese codes during WWII, then after Harvard Law School successfully pleaded cases before the US Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court - all of this before embarking upon his business career."

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USA Today One thing's certain: Sumner Redstone has methodically pieced together one of the world's largest entertainment conglomerates.

Financial World When Sumner Redstone gets going, it's like watching a TV video on fast forward! USA Today One thing's certain: Sumner Redstone has methodically pieced together one of the world's largest entertainment conglomerates. Los Angeles Times Mister Achiever! The Guardian Still raising hell! USA Today One thing's certain: Sumner Redstone has methodically pieced together one of the world's largest entertainment conglomerates. Financial World When Sumner Redstone gets going, it's like watching a TV video on fast forward! Time The Man with the Iron Grasp. Financial World When Sumner Redstone gets going, it's like watching a TV video on fast forward! The Guardian Still raising hell! Los Angeles Times Mister Achiever! Time The Man with the Iron Grasp. USA Today One thing's certain: Sumner Redstone has methodically pieced together one of the world's largest entertainment conglomerates. Financial World When Sumner Redstone gets going, it's like watching a TV video on fast forward! Los Angeles Times Mister Achiever! Time The Man with the Iron Grasp. USA Today One thing's certain: Sumner Redstone has methodically pieced together one of the world's largest entertainment conglomerates.

Time The Man with the Iron Grasp.

<i>Financial World</i> When Sumner Redstone gets going, it's like watching a TV video on fast forward!

The Guardian Still raising hell! Los Angeles Times Mister Achiever! Time The Man with the Iron Grasp. USA Today One thing's certain: Sumner Redstone has methodically pieced together one of the world's largest entertainment conglomerates. Financial World When Sumner Redstone gets going, it's like watching a TV video on fast forward!

A robust autobiography by the self-styled owner and CEO of media conglomerate Viacom (published, incidentally, by the company's book subsidiary). The Redstone legend, played up from many angles in the business and celebrity media, is treated here to a richly suggestive and selective retelling, true to the biz-bio mode. The oldest son of demanding, supportive parents, Redstone grew up an overachiever and has kept accelerating. He was a high-profile Washington lawyer by his early 30s, but he traded in his safe profession for a business opportunity, joining his dad's drive-in theater start-up. With steely temperament and confidence, Redstone recounts how he successfully built up a regional industry leader through equal applications of effort and chutzpah: He mercilessly pursued the Hollywood studios, like David against Goliath, while making West Coast alliances that leveraged Viacom's steep growth trajectory. It was a brutal ascent, but Redstone was a financial juggernaut who drew powerful interests to his side, and he stood taller after each corporate endgame. Yet, this bellicose cycle sounds somewhat at odds with his stated preference to discuss things rationally and settle agreeably. He is, he declares, Viacom, and Viacom is King of Content-and within this frame of reference, Redstone sits as king and kingmaker. It reads like a courtroom drama having the judge for jury, but a blurring of the enjoyment of battle for the sake of winning with an enjoyment of battle for its own sake seems an occupational hazard in the high-stakes entertainment industry. Nonetheless, Redstone's gilding wears thinner with each Viacom victory, and his vindicatory attitude calls for interpretation-not just reading along. In his opening pages, he takes issue with a critical Business Week cover story, but by the end his self-congratulatory tone has added substance to the mad genius caricature. Outrageous as he is, for personality and readability, Redstone gets an A . (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Sumner Redstone is chairman and chief executive officer of Viacom. He maintains residences in New York and Newton, Massachusetts.

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