Cha-Ching! Joe Ianniello Lands With $125M Golden Parachute

Joe Ianniello

Former CBS Corp. Chief Executive Officer Joe Ianniello nabbed an eye-popping $125 million in total compensation and severance payments from ViacomCBS in 2019.

Ianniello, who announced he was stepping down in January, was the head of CBS, which merged with sister company, Viacom last December, to form ViacomCBS.

The NY Post reports news of Ianniello’s princely compensation was part of the company’s annual filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Friday evening.

The filing shows he netted a salary of $2.8 million and $84.7 million in severance payments provided for via an employment contract drawn up during the reign of disgraced CBS chairman and CEO Les Moonves, who resigned in Sept. 2018 amid sexual harassment allegations.  Under that contract, Ianniello, who had been Moonves’ right-hand man, was promised a windfall if he was not promoted to CEO of the entire company after Moonves.

It was previously reported that Ianniello would net about $70 million linked to those promises for a total compensation of $100 million. Friday’s filing shows the haul was even larger than previously anticipated, including stock awards valued at $37.4 million.

The filing also reveals that Bob Bakish, the Viacom chief who was named CEO of ViacomCBS, received $8.4 million in total compensation last year. This included $230,000 in salary, $3.1 million in bonuses and $5 million in stock awards.