DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
CBS Corp. (CBS) Chief Financial Officer Fred Reynolds will step
down next month and retire in August after a 38-year career in
finance and business strategy.
The company said a successor for Reynolds, who has worked for
CBS and several of its predecessors, including the former Viacom
and Westinghouse Electric Corp., since 1994, would be named
soon.
Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said Reynolds "has guided our
finance division through virtually every major transformative event
of the last 15 years." They include the company's acquisition by
Westinghouse in 1995, its Infinity acquisition in 1996, the
Viacom-CBS merger in 2000 and the launch of CBS as a stand-alone
company in 2006.
Reynolds called it "tremendously gratifying" to be part of the
transformation of CBS into "a leader in the global media
marketplace."
He will step down as CFO on July 20 but remain executive vice
president while working with Moonves and other executives on the
transition of his duties before his Aug. 15 retirement.
Reynolds has been CBS's financial chief since its separation
from Viacom Inc. (VIA). Both companies, and nearly all of the media
business in general, have been struggling amid a worldwide drop in
advertising spending.
CBS's shares were recently down 4.3% at $7.03 amid a broader
market downturn.
-By Kerry E. Grace, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5089;
kerry.grace@dowjones.com