Great news! Viacom is splitting the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. This is a good governance move. Unfortunately, the incumbent is giving up the latter and holding on to the former and shows that nothing has changed at Viacom.
The split was clearly effected to give the incumbent a continuing, decisive role and so we should not believe that Viacom has got the governance message yet. Does anyone really believe that things will be any different when the split happens?
Giving the Chairmanship position, even if it is non-executive, to the outgoing CEO continues with the tired old practices of the past. Companies should have split positions of Chairman (who should be non-executive) and Chief Executive Officer and retiring CEO's should go, even from the Board as a normal director.
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See article:
Viacom Inc.'s Sumner Redstone said Thursday he planned to step down as chief executive from the global media conglomerate by next year when it is expected to split in two, but remain as chairman.
Viacom's co-presidents Les Moonves and Tom Freston are expected to take the top executive roles at CBS and Viacom, respectively.
The company posted a quarterly profit, driven by advertising gains at advertising sales growth at MTV and BET.
The owner of Paramount movie studios and the CBS television network plans to split its fast moving cable networks and movies division from its mature, cash-generating broadcast and radio networks by the first quarter of next year.
See full Article.
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