CBS reportedly offers US$100 million exit deal to CEO Les Moonves, accused of sex harassment

Media company CBS’s board has reportedly offered chief executive officer Les Moonves a US$100 million exit package.

The news comes after Moonves, one of the world’s most powerful media executives, acknowledged “mistakes” in the way he had treated women earlier in his career.

According to CNBC, negotiations about his exit have been going on for some time.

Citing company sources, CNBC claims Moonves’s contract could entitle him to as much as US$180 million in severance but the board is pushing for a US$100 million package made up of CBS stock.

In July, The New Yorker published an article in which six women who had worked with Moonves between the 1980s and late 2000s alleged they had been sexually harassed by the media executive.

Moonves, 68, was formerly co-president and co-chief operating officer of Viacom and was previously at Fox and Warner Brothers, where he launched hit shows including Friends and ER.