Maybe Revenge Should Come Before Business

A couple of weeks ago the board of CBS Corp. tried to get rid of the company’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc., through a two-pronged strategy of (1) holding a board meeting to approve a special dividend that would dilute away her voting control of the company and (2) suing to get a court to say that was okay. The directors held the board meeting anyway, and 11 out of 14 voted to dilute Redstone, which is less than 90 percent, so you’d think Redstone’s strategy was effective.