Ok, here is your secret decoder ring to 'redstone family' since you hear about it so much.. and its complicated.
Here is a streamlined family tree of this famous, pretty public family...
So Michael (there are many of these!!) aka Mickey Rothstein (whose family changed their name to Redstone) was a theatre and business owner in Boston. Eventually with his sons, they turn that into National Amusements which ultimately becomes a huge movie theatre chain.
(#1) So the real money really is at the Mickey and his sons level... which is where the drama starts, because part of the deal with Mickey and his two sons was shares of the company where to be put into trusts for their grandchildren.
(#2) In the 70s and 80s.. Sumner works out deals to buy out his brother Edward (Eddie), including the future trusts. Basically Sumner consolidates all of National Amusements under him. The choice by Eddie later becomes one of the points of later lawsuits.
(#3) Later, Sumner uses his existing business assets to buyout Viacom, later Paramount, and later they merge in CBS too. So by the 90s, Sumner is a huge media mogul. Things get messy as they spin things back out, break up things (star trek gets caught up in this, etc). But Sumner remains a billionaire, CEO of major brands, etc.
Note... all this (monster) money is consolidated over in the Mickey branch of the tree.. tho Edward has millions... and Ethel didn't seem bad off from her father Morris.
So on the left, you have Ethel Redstone, who marries David Snyder.. and we get the branch being discussed here with Gary Snyder. Ethel's son, Stephen is a business man in Boston, and eventually moves to Florida. Stephen has two children, Gary and Michael Snyder. So Gary and Michael are second cousins (edit: once removed.. or whatever the right label is) to Edward and Sumner... the money men. The Snyders become based in FL.. ultimately settling outside Miami. It appears Michael keeps this base.. while Gary opts to goto LA.
(#4) Later, Michael Redstone (in orange) sues his father for selling off his claim in Mickey's empire.(#3).. which of course now is enormous. At some point, Eddie had sued to keep money for himself.. rather than give it to Michael. (This is where everything is wacky!!). Ruth Ann had passed away in her 30s and was a bit estranged.. so she's not in the picture. Complicating things.. Michael had issues to and was actually committed for a time.. and had other life issues. So now... Michael, his father, and uncle.. its all messy.
(#5) Sumner had Sheri and Brent with his first wife, and later remarried, and later still had girlfriends and live in aids.. that wanted a piece of the estate too. So in Sumner's own direct chain between himself, his children... lawsuits started going around... Brent sued his father.. and was settled... and as Sumner's health deteriorated and he aged... there were multiple suits around his estate and succession of Sheri to takeover her father's holdings. This whole circus filled the media cycles through the 2000s as the girlfriend challenges were closed out.. and Sheri's ascension was cleaned up. So all THAT business was really in the Sumner brand of the family.
All of that was going on in the ownership stuff BEHIND the more customer visible stuff like CBS and Paramount splitting, and all kinds of stuff.
So what's the take away from all this?
Yes the Snyder's come from old money their great-grandfather kicked off.. but they were one-step removed from their second cousins and THEIR kids... which is where most of the public lawsuit drama was.
(Edit: fixed the graphic a bit)
