ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish Got Slight Pay Increase

Bob Bakish

ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish saw his pay increase slightly in 2020 to $38.9 million in 2020, according to The Wrap citing an SEC filing on Friday.

Bakish pulled in $36.6 million in compensation for 2019, which was split between his duties as CEO of Viacom before the merger with CBS toward the end of 2019.

Unlike most media conglomerates, ViacomCBS did not cut its executives pay last year. Bakish made a base salary of $3.1 million. The bulk of his compensation came from stock awards ($16 million) and non-equity incentive plan compensation ($19.6 million).

Since 2020 was the first full year of ViacomCBS, comparisons to the previous year are not exactly apples-to-apples. Naveen Chopra, executive vice president and CFO, made $11.3 million, while Christa D’Alimonte pulled in $5.95 million during the year.

In recent months, ViacomCBS’ stock price had skyrocketed, rising by 174% since the start of 2021, from $36.60 a share to more than $100 a share at the beginning of last week. But by the end of that same week, more than half of that price has been shaved off, with the company closing at $48.23 last Friday. It closed at $44.64 today.

The dip follows ViacomCBS’ announcement last week that it would raise $3 billion from new stock offerings. The company said it intends to use that money to invest in its streaming businesses, especially the newly launched Paramount+.