Media chieftains don’t suffer from low self-esteem. Industry titans including Bob Iger, Reed Hastings and Rupert Murdoch probably need big egos to believe they’re entitled to make far more than most CEOs at similarly sized companies...
Japanese electronics to entertainment giant Sony is expected to offer up to $3.7 billion (JPY400 billion) to take full control of its finance division. The move would shore up its profits. Sony president and chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida is scheduled to make an hour-long presentation on group strategy on Tuesday afternoon local time. The Nikkei newspaper said that the move to take private the finance division would be announced then...
Disney has raised another $11 billion in debt to help the company power through the revenue crisis spurred by the global coronavirus pandemic. On the same day that Shanghai Disneyland reopened at a fraction of its typical capacity after a nearly four-month closure, Disney tapped the debt markets for a series of notes that come due between 2026 and 2060...
U.S.-based securities analysis firm and activist investor Wolfpack Research has publicly accused Chinese streaming platform iQIYI of fraud. iQIYI “massively [inflated] its user numbers and revenue while at the same time hiding the fraud from auditors and investors by overpaying for content, acquisitions and other assets,” Wolfpack said. “IQIYI is nearing its 10-year anniversary and it has never been profitable and its losses are accelerating...
Tegna confirmed Sunday that two suitors for the station group have recently withdrawn acquisition offers, citing the upheaval in the broader marketplace caused by the coronavirus crisis. Tegna ’s statement is the company’s first acknowledgement that it has received four unsolicited acquisition offers in recent weeks...
Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and CEO of Facebook, can’t be ousted by investors — he owns a controlling interest in the company’s voting shares. But according to the social giant, the new Oversight Board — colloquially called Facebook’s “Supreme Court” — that it is setting up to adjudicate appeals about whether to leave up or take down specific content will have the ability to make those decisions independently of Zuckerberg or anyone else at Facebook...
Sony has rejected the corporate breakup proposal that it received three months ago from activist investor Dan Loeb and his Third Point Capital. Loeb had called on Sony to divest its image-sensors business in order to focus more on entertainment, release value and improve share price...
Reddit has appointed Personal Capital chief marketing officer Porter Gale to its board of directors, the company announced Tuesday. Gale is Reddit’s first female board member, and her appointment coincides with the departure of longtime board member and Founders Fund general partner Keith Rabois...
The CBS Corp. board of directors is moving closer to initiating acquisition discussions with Viacom, according to multiple sources close to the situation. The move has been expected for months, although there may still be obstacles on the road to a reunion for the two sides of the Redstone media empire...
Former Sony Entertainment chief Michael Lynton is joining the Warner Music board of directors as non-executive chairman, a source close to the situation confirmed to Variety. The news was first reported by Music Business Worldwide...
A small group of protestors chanted “No money for Les” outside of CBS Corp.’s annual shareholders meeting in New York on Tuesday, but inside there were no questions from shareholders about the sexual misconduct scandal that has enveloped the company and former chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves...
Nearly two months after Leslie Moonves’ ouster from CBS Corp., the search for his successor has been sluggish and only now starting in earnest. But it won’t be a speedy process.
The word that the CBS board’s evaluation of candidates could take as long as four to six months...
When Harvey Weinstein was fired a year ago this week, commentators were quick to point out that all of his board members were men. Similarly, when Leslie Moonves was forced out of CBS last month, many noted that just three of the company’s 14 directors were women. The #MeToo movement has raised a question that often follows corporate disasters: Could this have been avoided if more women were in charge?...
The Walt Disney Company board announced Thursday that it has elected Michael Froman as a new director.
Froman is the vice chairman and president of strategic growth at Mastercard, where he works to expand strategic partnerships with governments, NGOs, and other institutions. Froman also oversees Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth, an independent subsidiary of the company that aims to create more equitable financial growth around the world...
CBS has made it official: Leslie Moonves is stepping down as chairman-CEO amid a cascade of sexual assault allegations and CBS and National Amusements Inc. have settled the legal battle that erupted in May over control of the company. CBS chief operating officer Joe Ianniello has been named interim CEO of the company. The shakeup at the top includes the addition of six new board members to the 14-member CBS board, which has been at odds with NAI...
Sumner Redstone seized control of Viacom in a hostile takeover in 1987. He then made sure that no other corporate raider could take it from him, dividing the company’s stock into voting and nonvoting shares. Thirty years later, Redstone’s absolute control is under threat not from an external foe but from within...
Board members from CBS Corp. and Viacom are expected to meet as soon as next week to begin discussions on the valuations of both companies for a possible merger. Executives at both media companies have been hip-deep in crunching numbers and preparing financial data to guide the discussions between the members of the special committees assembled to consider options for a CBS - Viacom reunion...
A CBS shareholder charges in a new legal filing that corporate board members and CEO Leslie Moonves were “recklessly profligate” when they approved nearly $13 million in pay over three years for one-time chairman Sumner Redstone , after it became clear that he was “incapacitated beyond recovery.” The most damning new evidence in the amended complaint, filed in Delaware Chancery Court, comes from Redstone’s own admissions about his condition, in a lawsuit against two former caretakers and paramours — Manuela Herzer and Sydney Holland. The filing says that the corporate leaders looked out for ...
Viacom chief Philippe Dauman has opted not to attend Allen & Company’s Sun Valley media conference, a spokesman for the company said Thursday. The exclusive gathering of moguls and billionaires was being closely watched because Shari Redstone , who is battling with Dauman for control of Viacom, is on hand. She has been seen at the resort with CBS chief Les Moonves and with Nicole Seligman, a former Sony executive and newly named board member...
One shareholder asked the Viacom question. Leslie Moonves talked up the pending launch of Showtime as a digital-only option. The four items on the agenda were passed by better than 97% margins, and the entirety of CBS’ 2015 annual shareholders meeting on Thursday morning was completed in just under 30 minutes. “No company in better position to benefit from a dynamic shifting marketplace than CBS,” Moonves said during his state-of-the-company presentation...
Hammer fills the seat vacated in October by Marc Andreessen. She is one of 10 independent directors on the 12-member board chaired by Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar. The appointment comes as Ebay prepares to separate its PayPal service into a ...
Live Nation Entertainment has added music vet Jimmy Iovine to the concert promoter's board of directors . Iovine serves as an independent director of the board, and will help Live Nation as it seeks new ways to attract and engage live music fans...
TOKYO — Sony announced the nominees for its board of directors , including five new faces, on Tuesday. One is former U.S. ambassador to Japan John Roos, a veteran Silicon Valley lawyer with an enormous array of contacts who may help Sony strengthen ...
The Freedom of the Press board of directors is set to bring on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as its newest member. The addition will come into effect next month, the org announced...