Viacom Vice-Chair Shari Redstone removes support for potential merger with CBS

Shares of Viacom Inc. fell more than 5% on Monday after CNBC reported Vice-Chair of the board, Shari Redstone, was withdrawing support to merge the media and entertainment company with CBS Corp. . The two companies split 11 years ago. Shares of CBS were down a little more than 1%. Viacom's film and TV businesses have struggled as of late, as Redstone and former Chief Executive Philippe Dauman led a public battle for control of the company. Redstone won out and had planned to combine Viacom and CBS, which executives at the latter had been sternly against historically. Viacom shares are down more than 6% in the year to date, underperforming CBS, which is up nearly 33% and the S&P 500 Index, up more than 10%.

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