Was Freston Viacom's fall guy?

With this week's news that Tom Freston, CEO of media giant Viacom, was going to no longer be with the company (read: pushed out/fired), one has to wonder why this happened. With such a media competitive circus going on with Viacom and strong competitors like Time Warner and Sony, was Viacom stock so saggy that Sumner Redstone felt compelled to push out an industry veteran like Freston, or was there more to it?

Redstone said less than a month ago that he was pleased with Freston's performance. Not a month later, Freston is basically fired. Hmm, something does not add up here. Let's look at Viacom's share appreciation for the last six months: March 8th saw VIA.B. shares at $38.05, July 17th say a drop to $33.10 and Viacom shares closed yesterday at $34.10.

But last Decemeber VIA.B shares stood at $44.90. The stock has fallen in the area of 24% over the last 10 months. Ah-ha, the picture is becoming clearer, but Freston has presided over stock declines before, right? Remember, Viacom split itself into two companies and stock tickers last January, which muddies the picture.

So what was in Redstone's pipe when he said this a month ago: "I, for one, am very encouraged by the progress we have made financially and operationally, particularly in moving our powerful brands to promising new platforms. The way Tom and I look at it, at least for the time being, we like the company exactly as it is." Something must have been brewing under the covers here. This move is a surprise to everyone, that is for sure. Or, is it? Would Viacom losing MySpace to News Corp. have anything to do with Freston getting canned? Inquiring minds want to know, now.