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CEO and President of CBS Les Moonves in July. Photographer: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg
The CBS soap opera took another dramatic turn with CNBC reports that the company's board negotiated a low-cost start for longtime CEO Les Moonves.
In recent months, it was the latest twist in a series of televised intrigues for CBS. The Moonves negotiations are calling into question much more than the final price of its increasingly probable exit. The future of the company's board of directors, a court battle with its controlling shareholder and its future as an independent entity are also changing.
The departure of Moonves, one of Hollywood's most famous executives, became a real possibility a month ago, when Ronan Farrow himself and other CBS executives made a series of allegations of sexual misconduct in the 1990s.
Moonves denied the allegations but said in a statement that he acknowledged "I may have put some women uncomfortable in making progress. "
An outside law firm is investigating these allegations, but the committee apparently agrees with BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield, who called Moonves "impediment" to the company.
The board of directors offered Moonves $ 100 million in shares for early retirement, sharply reducing the contractual provisions that would give him $ 180 million in severance pay and a production contract.
Assuming that Moonves takes some form of agreement, CBS will proceed without its top executive to an increasingly uncertain territory for medium-sized mainstream media companies.
The company was a target of choice among the Hollywood fever mergers and acquisitions that led this year's acquisition by Disney of 81 billion dollars of the majority of 21st Century Fox and the purchase of 85 billion dollars of AT & T.
In the midst of all this, the majority of the board and Moonves resisted the efforts of board member Share Redstone, whose national company National Amusements held a majority stake, to force a merger with Viacom, which also controls the Redstone clan.
This led to a June putsch when Moonves and the majority of the board adopted a provision to significantly dilute Redstone's voting power.
In Redstone-related litigation cases, CBS attributed the merger to the removal of bidders for a stand-alone CBS. Deposits accused bidders of abandoning negotiations because they did not want Viacom and its underperforming pay TV channels. Verizon, according to Lowell McAdam, the CEO of the acquisition, would have figured among those frightened bidders.
Now, this lawsuit also seems to be directed towards a settlement. According to some reports, National Amusement would agree not to press for a merger with Viacom. But with the departure of Moonves and the two companies that continue to take redemption targets, a merger could still be considered.
If this happens, Viacom will be at least a much better corporate partner than at the end of 2017.
Since then, an aggressive strategy has focused on six main channels and a series of acquisitions – the WHOSAY marketing influence agency, VidCon influence conference operators and the AwesomenessTV online video production company, as well as an investment in the Viacom Pocket.watch digital video service. Undoubtedly, under CEO Bob Bakish, Viacom has done much more than CBS to compete with Hollywood in the post-cable landscape that cuts the rope.
A company merged with new digital assets would be better able to compete with Hollywood media companies and video streaming. upstarts such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple.
What is less clear, is whether potential buyers would be more interested in a merged company or in two independent operations, or with Moonves in hand. One thing seems likely: bidders will probably not include Verizon this time.
As the drama of the CBS-Viacom meeting room unfolded in the spring, Verizon replaced McAdam as CEO with technical director Hans Vestberg, former CEO of Ericsson.
Vestberg has issued a series of statements stating that the company will not make any major new acquisitions. Instead, it will focus on consolidating the units of its OATH division (the acquisitions of Yahoo, AOL, Vessel and HuffPost) and setting up its next-generation 5G mobile network.
Even with Verizon on the sidelines, more mergers and acquisitions in Hollywood seem likely. Companies that are not named Disney, AT & T, Netflix or Amazon will likely be looking for scale to compete in the new media landscape. Again, CBS could play a leading role in another corporate soap opera.
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CEO of CBS and President Les Moonves in July. Photographer: David Paul Morris / Bloomberg
The CBS soap opera took another dramatic turn with CNBC reports that the company's board negotiated a low-cost start for longtime CEO Les Moonves.
In recent months, it was the latest twist in a series of televised intrigues for CBS. The Moonves negotiations are calling into question much more than the final price of its increasingly probable exit. The future of the company's board of directors, a court battle with its controlling shareholder and its future as an independent entity are also changing.
The departure of Moonves, one of Hollywood's most famous executives, became a real possibility a month ago, when Ronan Farrow himself and other CBS executives made a series of allegations of sexual misconduct in the 1990s.
Moonves denied the allegations but said in a statement that he acknowledged "I may have put some women uncomfortable in making progress. "
An outside law firm is investigating these allegations, but the committee apparently agrees with BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield, who called Moonves "impediment" to the company.
The board of directors offered Moonves $ 100 million in shares for early retirement, sharply reducing the contractual provisions that would give him $ 180 million in severance pay and a production contract.
Assuming that Moonves takes some form of agreement, CBS will proceed without its top executive to an increasingly uncertain territory for medium-sized mainstream media companies.
The company was a target of choice among the Hollywood fever mergers and acquisitions that led this year's acquisition by Disney of 81 billion dollars of the majority of 21st Century Fox and the purchase of 85 billion dollars of AT & T.
In the midst of all this, the majority of the board and Moonves resisted the efforts of board member Share Redstone, whose national company National Amusements held a majority stake, to force a merger with Viacom, which also controls the Redstone clan.
This led to a June putsch when Moonves and the majority of the board adopted a provision to significantly dilute Redstone's voting power.
In Redstone-related litigation cases, CBS attributed the merger to the removal of bidders for a stand-alone CBS. Deposits accused bidders of abandoning negotiations because they did not want Viacom and its underperforming pay TV channels. Verizon, according to Lowell McAdam, the CEO of the acquisition, would have figured among those frightened bidders.
Now, this lawsuit also seems to be directed towards a settlement. According to some reports, National Amusement would agree not to press for a merger with Viacom. But with the departure of Moonves and the two companies that continue to take redemption targets, a merger could still be considered.
If this happens, Viacom will be at least a much better corporate partner than at the end of 2017.
Since then, an aggressive strategy has focused on six main channels and a series of acquisitions – the WHOSAY marketing influence agency, VidCon influence conference operators and the AwesomenessTV online video production company, as well as an investment in the Viacom Pocket.watch digital video service. Undoubtedly, under CEO Bob Bakish, Viacom has done much more than CBS to compete with Hollywood in the post-cable landscape that cuts the rope.
A company merged with new digital assets would be better able to compete with Hollywood media companies and video streaming. upstarts such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple.
What is less clear, is whether potential buyers would be more interested in a merged company or in two independent operations, or with Moonves in hand. One thing seems likely: bidders will probably not include Verizon this time.
As the drama of the CBS-Viacom meeting room unfolded in the spring, Verizon replaced McAdam as CEO with technical director Hans Vestberg, former CEO of Ericsson.
Vestberg has issued a series of statements stating that the company will not make any major new acquisitions. Instead, it will focus on consolidating the units of its OATH division (the acquisitions of Yahoo, AOL, Vessel and HuffPost) and setting up its next-generation 5G mobile network.
Even with Verizon on the sidelines, more mergers and acquisitions in Hollywood seem likely. Companies that are not named Disney, AT & T, Netflix or Amazon will likely be looking for scale to compete in the new media landscape. Again, CBS could play a leading role in another corporate soap opera.
