More Details On New Moonves, CBS Agreement
A new CBS (NYSE: CBS) SEC filing describes the compensation package announced this week for CEO Leslie Moonves, whose tenure was extended to 2011 as part of the deal. Moonves and CBS were under fire for the initial package that paid him a cash salary of $5.9 million including deferred compensation. Instead, Moonves’ base salary is now $3.5 million a year—it can be increased by the CBS board—with much of his potential compensation tied to performance. Excluding the stock options, it looks like the overall compensation could be millions lower than his 2007 compensation. Still, again excluding the options, this deal could be worth at least $86 million.
Some of the details:
—Effective Jan. 1, 2008, Moonves’ annual target bonus will be 300 percent ($10.5 million) of his salary.
—As was announced, Moonves gets an option to purchase 5 million shares. Turns out the option is pegged to the closing price on the third trading day after the announcement made Oct. 16. CBS was one of the many stocks that ended the day on a lower note, closing down 2.4 percent at $28.70. The 52-week high is $35.75. The options vests in four equal installments through 2011.
—Starting this month, he gets an annual restricted stock unit (RSU) incentive valued at $7.6 million. That award is based on budgeted free cash flow performance; the shares, based on the closing price on grant day, vest conditionally every year.
—He also gets other corporate benefits, including “no less than $8 million” life insurance.
—As before, his agreement guarantees that he reports to Chairman Sumner Redstone.
—Looking ahead, the agreement includes incentives for Moonves to stay as a senior advisor or producer should he leave for good reason, be terminated without cause or when the agreement expires. As an advisor, he would get $2 million annually for three years; a separate agreement would set the terms if he opts for producer. In either case, he would get “substantially similar benefits” and another 300,000 RSUs.
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