Shari Redstone elected chair of Midway board

NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Video game company Midway Games Inc (MWY.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), controlled by Viacom Inc (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Executive Chairman Sumner Redstone, has appointed daughter Shari Redstone as chair of the board of directors.

Midway Chairman Kenneth Cron resigned from the board after serving for three years.

The Redstones took a family squabble public over the summer after Sumner Redstone fired off a letter to financial news publisher Forbes slamming Shari Redstone with having made "little to no contribution" to the building of the conglomerate founded from a collection of movie theaters.

The dispute erupted after Shari, who is vice chair of Midway, Viacom and CBS Corp (CBS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), pushed for executive compensation to be more closely tied to performance and whether she would succeed her father without board approval after his death, according to reports.

Father and daughter have since taken the discussions private.

Regarding Shari's appointment, Sumner said on Friday, "I fully support the election of Shari as Chair and I am totally confident of Midway's success. I believe that this will become apparent as future events evolve."

Midway publishes titles including Hong Kong action director John Woo's "Stranglehold" and "Unreal Tournament." (Reporting by Kenneth Li, editing by Richard Chang)