• by Wayne Friedman , September 10, 2018

CBS has announced the departure of longtime CEO Les Moonves following a new report from The New Yorker magazine citing additional accusations about Moonves from six women.  At the same time, CBS has ended legal efforts against majority owner National Amusements.

With Moonves' departure, CBS Corp. Chief Operating Officer Joe Ianniello has been named president and acting CEO of CBS. The CBS board will search for a permanent replacement.

The new New Yorker story by Ronan Farrow quoted six more women and their complaints of sexual misconduct on the part of Moonves. An earlier New Yorker report in August from Ronan Farrow identified the six women who initially talked about sexual misconduct by Moonves, who -- after the story’s publication -- admitted to some unwanted advances.

After the initial story, the CBS board allowed Moonves to keep working as chairman-president-CEO of the company while it started up investigations into the accusations.

As part of the company announcement, Moonves and CBS will donate $20 million to one or more organizations that support the #MeToo movement and equality for women in the workplace.

The board had been in the process of a potential exit package for Moonves — worth anywhere from $100 million to $150 million, according to reports.

With regard to National Amusements Inc (NAI), the CBS board voted to rescind a previously announced special share dividend, which would have lowered National Amusements’ 80% controlling stake in the media company.

For its part, NAI said it would not propose a re-merger of CBS and Viacom, agreeing to make no proposal for at least two years after the date of the settlement. NAI also has amended its bylaws to undo previous amendments that it adopted following CBS' filing.

As part of the agreement with NAI, CBS' board of directors will be reconfigured with new members to a total of 12, up from 11 previously.

New members include Candace Beinecke, Barbara Byrne, Brian Goldner, Richard D. Parsons, Susan Schuman and Strauss Zelnick.

The independent directors remaining on the board are William Cohen, Gary Countryman, Linda Griego and Martha Minow.

In addition to National Amusements’s President Shari Redstone, vice chair of CBS and of Viacom, Robert Klieger, a Redstone family lawyer, remains on the board.