Report: Les Moonves Could Be On His Way Out At CBS

CBS's board is deep in settlement talks with CEO Les Moonves that would result in his departure from the company and the appointment of COO Joe Ianniello as the interim CEO, according to CNBC, citing people close to the negotiations.

Les Moonves

The talks between Moonves and his board have been going on for some time but have yet to reach a conclusion given continued back and forth about his exit package.

While under his contract he is due as much as $180 million in severance and a production deal, sources say the board is offering a roughly $100 million exit package made up almost entirely of CBS stock and wants the right to claw back some of that compensation if at the conclusion of an ongoing investigation into charges of sexual harrassment, Moonves has been found to have committed other inappropriate acts.

As was widely reported Wednesday, CBS and its controlling shareholder National Amusements Inc. are currently negotiating a settlement to end their litigation about whether the CBS board has the right to vastly dilute the voting power of NAI. While it is possible the settlement with Moonves and between CBS and NAI could be announced simultaneously, sources tell me they are not linked.