After months of in-fighting, it looks like Shari Redstone is close to winning her battle with Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, with her father Sumner Redstone’s long-time consigliere expected to depart soon with an exit package of some $85 million.

In Dauman’s place, Chief Operating Officer Thomas Dooley, 59, would become CEO, reports the Los Angeles Times. The paper also reported that Ms. Redstone, 62, is pushing to overhaul the Viacom board, bringing on five new directors over the course of the next several months.

Possible sticking points to the deal are the potential sale of nearly half of Viacom-owned Paramount Pictures to an outside investor, possibly China’s Dalian Wanda Group, backed by Dauman. Ms. Redstone disagrees with the plan.

Ms. Redstone has been pushing to get rid of Dauman, saying that her father, Viacom Chairman Emeritus Sumner Redstone, backs her. Mr. Redstone, 93, is in failing health and reported to be unable to speak intelligibly so it’s difficult to discern his true wishes, although he worked closely with 62-year-old Dauman for years both as his personal lawyer and later as CEO of Viacom.

Between them, as part of Redstone family investment vehicle National Amusements, Shari and Sumner Redstone control nearly 80% of the voting shares of both Viacom and CBS Corp., which is separately run by CEO Leslie Moonves.

Driving resolution toward a settlement is a trial date of Sept. 19. At that time, a court in Massachusetts is due to start hearing testimony over Mr. Redstone’s mental competence. Earlier this year, Dauman and another longtime Redstone associate and Viacom board member, George Abrams, filed the lawsuit after they were dismissed from Mr. Redstone’s trust. That trust will someday control Mr. Redstone’s shares in both Viacom and CBS.

Another trial, this one in Delaware, is scheduled to start Oct. 31 to review whether Ms. Redstone’s actions, via National Amusements, to remove Viacom board members were valid.

The proposed new board members are Ken Lerer, a managing partner of a New York-based investment firm; Thomas May, chairman of Eversource Energy; Ronald Nelson, executive chairman of Avis Budget Group; Judith McHale, former president of Discovery Communications and Nicole Seligman, previously the president of Sony Entertainment Inc.

Board members besides Dauman and Abrams that would be removed, according to the Wall Street Journal, are Blythe J. McGarvie, Frederic V. Salerno and William Schwartz.

READ MORE: The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal

[Image courtesy of Daniel Acker, Getty Images via Vanity Fair]

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