Redstones' NAI Says Its Interest in CBS-Viacom Merger Cooled

CBS Corp.’s controlling shareholder said it was no longer interested in merging the media company with Viacom Inc., even before CBS filed a lawsuit to fend off a deal. Officials of a company owned by billionaire Sumner Redstone and his family told Viacom directors earlier this month that their interest had waned in merging the owner of MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Studios with the U.S.’s most-watched TV network in prime time, according to a suit filed Tuesday by National Amusements Inc. NAI didn’t “intend to force a CBS/Viacom merger, whether by removing and replacing CBS directors or otherwise,’’ NAI executives said in the Delaware Chancery Court suit.