Viacom Leaders Put Positive Spin on the Future

NEW YORK: At Viacom’s annual shareholder meeting, the media conglomerate’s top executives presented an optimistic outlook for what lies ahead, promising future stock gains. 

Philippe Dauman, the president and CEO of Viacom, said that the company is experiencing a "creative renaissance." He and Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman of Viacom, promised that being a hit-maker and having streamlined operations during the recession will further boost the company’s shares as the economy pulls out of the downturn. Dauman pointed to the success of programming such as SpongeBob SquarePants and South Park, as well as film franchises such as Star Trek and Transformers, as reason for optimism. He also highlighted the success of the music video game Rock Band as a franchise that will generate profit growth over time. 

While acknowledging that the economic downturn is the worst in decades, Redstone tried to focus mainly on the future, assuring shareholders, "The best days in our history are still to come."

Viacom shares are up 19 percent since the start of the year.