LES EXIT IN WORKS
Moonves may get a $100M ticket out of town
One of the most powerful executives in the entertainment world appears close to getting toppled.
Les Moonves, the long-reigning chief executive and chairman of CBS is in talks on an exit package that could payhim roughly $100 million to walk away, according to reports.
The 68-year-old exec was accused in a July report of sexually harassing several women — and then acting to derail their careers.
Moonves has denied the harassment and retaliation accusations, first reported by The NewYorker.
Two law firms are investigation the accusations.
The talks could be finalized as soon as next week, sources said — triggering the stunning exit of Moonves, the CEO of the Tiffany network since 2003.
Moonves was also among the highest paid executives in the US each year. In 2017, he took home $69.3 million in total compensation.
In his current contract, Moonves is due up to $180 million in severance if he is fired without cause. He stood to gain up to $315 million in compensation and severance should he have worked through the end of his contract, according to reports.
Moonves’ likely exit is a jawdropping swing from just this spring when he exercised his tremendous power to get the CBS board to move boldly to dilute the 79 percent grip on the company’s voting power held by National Amusements Inc.
NAI is the holding company for the Redstone family, and Shari Redstone had been pushing to merge CBSwithVi- acom — another NAI-controlled media giant.
Moonves was against the merger and the relationship between the two moguls turned toxic earlier this year as they jostled for the upper hand.
CBS sued NAI to cement its move to take the Redstone’s control of CBS to 17 percent.
The case is slated for an Oct. 3 trial — but both sides are in settlement talks, according to reports.
Independent board members of CBS have been scrambling since Labor Day weekend to negotiate an exit package to Moonves, sources said.
The rumored $100 million exit package, first reported by CNBC, is said to be comprised of $10 million cash and $90 million in stock.
The stock award would make it easier for CBS to it claw back should the ongoing probe determine Moonves did, indeed, do what the six women in the published report accused him of.
“Moonves’ position is untenable,” said Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser. “The view in general on Wall Street was that he could do no wrong. He was regarded as a unique executive who could uniquely bridge Hollywood, Madison Avenue and Wall Street. At the same time, I think his legacy will be tarnished by his premature exit.”
Perhaps unsettling for Moonves, investors Thursday pushed the price of CBSshares up as news of his possible exit circulated around Wall Street.
CBSshares closed up3.1 percent, to $54.62.
“Advertisers wanted him out,” Weiser said. “Imagine P&G running its ‘Like a Girl’ campaign or Dove running its beauty campaign on CBS. They’d be asking for social media mockery. There is tangible economic reasoning to this [exit] ... there’s an unnecessary risk [in keeping Moonves].”
CBS and NAI declined comment. Moonves’ lawyer, Dan Petrocelli, did not return calls for comment.