Everyone Gets Paid in CBS-Viacom Except Shareholders
Shari Redstone is shelling out to combine two underperforming media companies with a hodgepodge of assets.
At least someone’s making money in the merger.
Photographers: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images (Viacom); Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg (CBS)
Is it just me, or does the $100 million “severance” being paid to Joe Ianniello, the acting chief executive officer of CBS Corp., stink to high heaven? For starters, you can make a pretty compelling Elizabeth Warren-esque argument that handing a $100 million “severance” to someone who is not, in fact, leaving the company is exactly why income inequality has become such a hot-button issue.
But let’s be old school about this. Let’s focus on the shareholders and how this is their money that’s being handed to Ianniello. It is also an unpleasant reminder of how the father-daughter combo of Sumner and Shari Redstone seemingly can’t resist throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at executives who have not done much for their stockholders.