AP: CBS' Moonves pay doubled in 2009 to $43 mln

NEW YORK

CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves was awarded a pay package valued at $43 million in 2009, more than double his compensation a year earlier, according to an Associated Press review.

The 60-year-old president and CEO of the broadcasting company saw his base salary remain unchanged at $3.5 million.

But his bonus increased to $15 million from $9.5 million a year earlier.

Moonves also was awarded stock options valued at $14.4 million in 2009 after getting none in 2008. That included a one-time grant of 2.4 million options valued at nearly $13 million.

Those options had a strike price of $13.09. With shares having closed Monday at $15.50, those options are already worth millions of dollars on paper, but vest over the next four years, over which time their actual value could change.

The board, in regulatory filings made Friday, said that one-time award was given "in consideration of his strong performance and leadership in a difficult business climate." Like many other media companies, CBS has faced a weak ad environment.

Moonves' other compensation, including a large reimbursement on taxes, came to $2.5 million, up from $229,981 a year earlier.

The 2009 pay package was valued at $43 million compared with $20.8 million a year earlier.

In a statement, the company justified Moonves' pay increase.

"More than 85 percent of Mr. Moonves' compensation is keyed to performance-based measures, ensuring that its actual value will continue to be closely aligned with that of the company's shareholders," it said.

The ad market gradually recovered in 2009, and CBS reported net income of $227 million, or 33 cents per share, last year. That reverses a loss of $11.7 billion, or $17.43 per share, in 2008, when the company booked a huge impairment charge on its assets.

Revenue fell 7 percent to $13 billion.

CBS shares rose 77 percent in 2009, closing at $14 on Dec. 31, 2009, from $7.93 a year earlier.

Moonves' contract at CBS was renewed in February to run through Feb. 22, 2015. While his 2010 salary is to remain the same, his target bonus will increase to $12 million from $10.5 million. Companies such as CBS multiply the target bonus by a factor based on performance, meaning the actual bonus can often exceed the target.

Meanwhile, Sumner Redstone, the 86-year-old executive chairman who controls both CBS and Viacom Inc. through his super-voting shares, saw his compensation package rise 8 percent in value to $16.2 million last year.

The Associated Press compensation formula is designed to isolate the value the company's board placed on the executive's total compensation package during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which reflect the size of the accounting charge taken for the executive's compensation in the previous fiscal year.