The Richest People In America: Sumner Redstone

AP Photo/Elise Amendola

#66 Sumner Redstone

$5.1 billion
Source: Viacom (nyse: VIA - news - people )

Media tycoon insists splitting viacom (Paramount Pictures, MTV Networks) and CBS (nyse: CBS - news - people ) (CBS, CW, CBS Radio) at the beginning of 2006 was the wisest way to allow nimble companies to grow. Market disagrees: CBS down 40%, Viacom 32% since. Declines have cost him $2.5 billion in past year. Boston-born Harvard grad inherited theater business from father; operation became National Amusements in 1954. National Amusements bought controlling stake in Viacom 1987. Stake in Midway Games (nyse: MWY - news - people ) worth $740 million in 2006; now paltry $182 million amid declining reputation. Prostate-cancer survivor donated $105 million to 3 U.S. medical centers last year.

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