CEO Moonves quits CBS over harassment allegations
LOS ANGELES — Bowing to pressure brought on by a sexual harassment scandal, CBS Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Leslie Moonves resigned late Sunday, marking a stunning fall from grace for one of Hollywood’s most respected entertainment executives.
CBS said that it and Moonves will donate $20 million to organizations that support the #MeToo movement and equality for women in the workplace. The donation, which will be made this week, has been deducted from any severance benefits that might have been due to Moonves.
Moonves’ most recent contract, which was due to expire in 2021, made him eligible to receive an exit deal valued at around $180 million — but that is now in doubt. The CBS board plans to wait to negotiate a financial settlement until the conclusion of an investigation by two prominent law firms into allegations of misconduct.
“Leslie Moonves will depart as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer effective immediately. Chief Operating Officer Joseph Ianniello will serve as President and Acting CEO while the Board conducts a search for a permanent successor,” CBS said in a statement Sunday afternoon.
Negotiations over the terms of Moonves’ departure accelerated following a report Sunday in the New Yorker magazine, which detailed six women’s allegations of sexual misconduct involving him in the 1980s and 1990s. Now at least 12 women have alleged that Moonves made inappropriate advances toward them.
In addition, CBS’ board will get a makeover. Inde- Les Moonves, chairman and CEO of CBS Corp., resigned Sunday after more sexual misconduct allegations surfaced. pendent board members struck a separate settlement with the company’s controlling shareholder family — the Redstones. That deal will dramatically overhaul CBS’ board by installing six new members, including several who are not aligned with the Redstone family.
The Redstone family, through its investment firm, National Amusements Inc., controls nearly 80 percent of the voting stock of both CBS and a second media company, Viacom Inc. As part of the truce, National Amusements will agree not to pursue a merger between CBS and Viacom for at least two years. CBS’ board also will be allowed to entertain offers from other prospective buyers — a condition that should immediately hang a for-sale sign on CBS.
Moonves’ departure was not unexpected. The 68year-old executive has been negotiating a settlement with independent CBS board members in recent weeks.
But talks heated up in the wake of the latest allegations contained in the New Yorker article, which included the account of a former Lorimar television executive, Phyllis GoldenGottlieb. She described being attacked by Moonves in the mid-1980s when the two were colleagues at the TV studio.
Golden-Gottlieb filed a report with the Los Angeles Police Department last year, and police found her allegations to be credible, according to law enforcement sources. She described two incidents, including one in which she said Moonves demanded that she perform oral sex on him. In the second incident, Moonves was angry over a work matter and allegedly slammed her against a wall. But prosecutors declined to bring charges because the incidents were more than 30 years old, and the statute of limitations had expired.
“CBS takes these allegations very seriously,” the network said Sunday. “Our board of directors is conducting a thorough investigation of these matters, which is ongoing.”
CBS board member Bruce Gordon has been leading the efforts to hammer out a settlement with Moonves as well as to end a bitter lawsuit with National Amusements.
Ianniello has been with CBS, and its corporate predecessor Viacom, for 18 years. He is deeply familiar with the company’s finances - and has helped to plot the company’s business strategy — but he lacks relationships in Hollywood, where Moonves had a strong reputation for being one of the industry’s best programmers.