Viacom CEO pay rose 22 per cent in year stock tumbled

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Viacom Inc. says CEO Philippe Dauman’s compensation rose 22 per cent to $54.2 million in the company’s latest fiscal year, a period when its stock fell more than 40 per cent.

The disclosure in a securities filing Friday includes a $17 million contract-renewal bonus that the company didn’t mention in a pre-release of executive pay details Wednesday. Viacom’s early release of pay information showed a 16 per cent compensation decline for Dauman when the signing bonus was not included.

The New York-based owner of Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures pre-released the executive pay data after a shareholder lawsuit alleged company was overpaying controlling shareholder Sumner Redstone. It showed Redstone’s compensation in fiscal 2015, which ended in September, declined 85 per cent to $2 million from $13 million in fiscal 2014.

The company’s full executive compensation report came out in the regulatory filing Friday.

Redstone, 92, is embroiled in a legal battle in Los Angeles brought by his former caregiver after control of his personal care was handed over to Dauman. On Friday, the judge in that case ordered Redstone undergo a new examination of his health and mental capacity.