Investors pressure Viacom to strip Redstone of power

Viacom management is feeling the growing pressure from outside shareholders to make some big changes.

As battle lines are being drawn, large investors are clamoring for change in light of the current court battle over the state of health of its 92-year-old executive chairman, Sumner Redstone.

California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) fired the first salvo when it requested that Viacom end its dual-class stock structure.

CalSTRS owns 1.1 million non-voting shares, so has little leverage to force change on the company’s board.

“Ideally we think there should be a one-share, one-vote capital structure,” CalSTRS Chief Investment Officer Aeisha Mastagni told Reuters.

Gamco’s Mario Gabelli — Viacom’s biggest shareholder, with 10 percent of the Class A voting shares — made calls for the company to acquire AMC Networks, which is controlled by James Dolan, and to sell off pieces of Viacom’s movie studio Paramount Pictures to Alibaba’s Jack Ma, Bloomberg reported.

Gabelli wants to see Redstone given the title of chairman emeritus instead of drawing two salaries for his role as executive chairman at both Viacom and CBS.

Viacom lawyers are expected back in the Los Angeles Superior Court on Jan. 27 to challenge accusations from Redstone’s former gal pal, Manuela Herzer, that Redstone is mentally diminished.

Herzer was tossed from Redstone’s property and was also removed as his main health-care agent this fall and replaced by Viacom Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman, who says Redstone is still “engaged and attentive.”

One of Herzer’s lawyers, Pierce O’Donnell at Greenberg Glusker, told The Post in an interview, “For my part, if I were a shareholder, I would want to know the truth.”