- Bob Bakish, who was ousted as CEO of Paramount in final April, obtained $69.3 million as a part of his severance compensation. The package deal was revealed in a Paramount submitting disclosed by the SEC on Friday.
Bob Bakish, the chief govt who was ousted by Paramount in April 2024 within the midst of contentious takeover battle, was reportedly given $69.3 million in severance, new SEC filings present.
Based on the settlement—signed April 29, 2024 however filed in an 8-Okay with the SEC on April 25—Bakish obtained $6.2 million in wage continuation, $24.8 million in bonus continuation, $10.36 million as a pro-rata bonus for 2024, $88,160 in insurance coverage continuation, $25,000 in outplacement help, and $27.81 million in acceleration/continuation of fairness awards.
His compensation for 2024 totaled $86.96 million. The 12 months prior, he obtained $31.3 million.
Bakish climbed the ranks at Viacom beginning in 1997, transferring up from VP of planning and improvement to govt VP of operations in 2004 earlier than ultimately turning into CEO of the corporate in 2016. He continued on in his chief govt function even after Viacom merged with CBS to type ViacomCBS, now Paramount World, in December 2019.
Bakish reportedly had a significant falling out with Shari Redstone, chair of Paramount and CEO of the theater chain Nationwide Amusements. Shari, in fact, can be the daughter of Sumner Redstone, the founder and chairman of Viacom and the chairman of CBS Company who died in 2020, only one 12 months after CBS and Viacom merged. Based on The Wall Avenue Journal, Bakish reportedly went behind Shari Redstone’s again in floating a possible streaming cope with Comcast in early 2024, which Redstone had beforehand been towards. The 2 had additionally reportedly fought over Bakish’s dealing with of the sale of Paramount’s Showtime division; Bakish had balked at a number of provides, together with one in every of which that was near $6 billion.
The backdrop for all of this, in fact, was probably the most dramatic company takeover battles in latest reminiscence, which included provides from David Ellison’s Skydance Media and a $26 billion joint bid from Sony and private-equity large Apollo World Administration.
After Bakish left the corporate, Paramount created a three-person “Workplace of the CEO.” George Cheeks was named president and CEO of CBS; Chris McCarthy turned president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Leisure Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Brian Robbins was named president and CEO of Paramount Photos and Nickelodeon.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
