ViacomCBS on Thursday (Sept. 24) acknowledged that the company had conducted a review of a complaint lodged by a former employee against CEO Bob Bakish but found no ground to support it.
“The Board takes any allegation of this type seriously. An independent review of the alleged incident has concluded, and the investigation did not support the allegation,” ViacomCBS said in a statement.
Website The Information (paywall) first reported the story, citing anonymous sources, and Deadline has confirmed that the review centered on a complaint made earlier this year by a former Nickelodeon employee, who alleged that Bakish touched her inappropriately at Viacom’s holiday party in 2016, when he was acting CEO.
Bakish became CEO of Viacom in 2017 and was named chief of the combined company when Viacom and CBS merged in December.
The issue is a sensitive one for companies, ViacomCBS in particular. The news of the probe of Bakish comes several years after the CBS side of the company was tainted by a highly public sexual misconduct scandal focused on former CBS CEO Les Moonves. The once high-flying executive resigned in September of 2017 after allegations by multiple women and explosive press reports.
He was formally fired with cause in December, forfeiting as much as $120 million in severance. The CBS board at the time accused him of “willful and material malfeasance.” Moonves was also accused of creating a “culture of fear” and intimidation at the network.
Following Moonves’ departure, CBS had conducted a broader misconduct probe of its workplace, which led to the departure of ex-60 Minutes boss Jeff Fager.
ViacomCBS chair Shari Redstone has been vocal about the importance of strong governance and of maintaining a healthy corporate culture at ViacomCBS. ViacomCBS is the rare corporate giant to have a majority-female board, as seven of the the company’s 13 directors are women.
Bakish has had Redstone’s strong support since he took over for former Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, who was forced out in a power struggle in August 2016. Bakish has been with Viacom since 1997, and was president and CEO of its international cable channels before succeeding Dauman.
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Originally published: Wednesday, September 23, 2020 at 18:29 BST.
Additional sources: The New York Post, Variety.
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