Viacom extends COO's employment contract through 2018, no pay rise

By Jessica Toonkel

(Reuters) - Viacom Inc has extended the employment agreement of Chief Operating Officer Thomas Dooley through 2018, settling uncertainty over whether the executive would stay with the multi-billion dollar media company 10 months before his current contract was set to expire.

Under the new agreement, announced on Thursday, Dooley will see no change in his compensation, according to a filing with securities regulators. In fiscal 2015, his pay fell to $29.4 million (£20.3 million) from $35 million the previous year.

Dooley's contract is now in line with those of Viacom Chief Executive and Chair Philippe Dauman and Chief Financial Officer Wade Davis, whose contracts also run to the end of 2018.

Details of the employment agreement will be disclosed after Viacom releases second-quarter earnings in April, said the New York-based media company, which owns MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount.

The existing agreement with Dooley, who was named COO in 2010, was set to expire on Dec. 31 this year, causing some uncertainty over his future.

Dooley and Dauman have worked closely for over 30 years. They left Viacom together in 2000, when Viacom merged with CBS, to run a private equity firm.

Six years later, when Viacom spun off CBS, Dauman and Dooley returned to Viacom with Dauman as CEO and Dooley as chief administrative officer. He was promoted to CFO in 2007 and to COO in 2010.

Viacom's inner workings have come under increasing scrutiny over the past two years in light of the declining health of 92-year-old majority owner Sumner Redstone. The media mogul's mental competence is the subject of a lawsuit brought by one of his former girlfriends. Last month, Dauman replaced Redstone as Viacom's executive chair.

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey and Bill Rigby)