Les Moonves Is More Like a Pirate Than a CEO
While you could reasonably argue that many—or even most—corporate CEOs are paid too much money, there is no better poster child for CEO overcompensation than Les Moonves, who plunders the CBS corporation like an evil pirate who tips poorly.
Moonves is routinely one of America’s most richly compensated CEOs—even though the company he runs is comparatively small. More to the point, he is routinely paid huge sums of money whether or not the company he runs has a good year.
It seems hard to believe that Les Moonves could be a mediocre, wildly overcompensated CEO year after year after year. Something has to give eventually, right? Even hedge fund guys can’t make an absurd fortune annually and turn it lagging performance for many years in a row. So, on the occasion of today’s Wall Street Journal analysis of CEO pay and company performance, let’s take a peek at how Les Moonves did in 2014:
Les Moonves’ 2014 compensation: $57.2 million, the fifth highest pay of all major corporate CEOs.
CBS’s shareholder return in 2014: -12.4%
Would you believe that by this metric, Les Moonves is once again the single shittiest CEO in America? Once again! No public corporation in America paid their CEO as highly and performed as badly.
Les Moonves and the CBS board that awards him his salary are some real bold shits.
[Beautiful portrait of Les Moonves that hangs in his home via]