3 Viacom Execs Given $104 Million in Options

Viacom Inc. gave its top three executives stock options that together are valued at about $104 million, rewarding them for generating some of the industry’s strongest profit and stock growth rates. Sumner Redstone, the media giant’s 75-year-old chairman, last year got options to buy 4 million Class B common shares, valued at $52 million. Deputy Chairmen Philippe Dauman and Thomas Dooley each got options for 2 million shares, valued at $26 million. Redstone waived payment of salary and bonus, as he has done in previous years. Dauman, 45, and Dooley, 42, were each paid $1 million in salary and a bonus of $6 million. Their salary was at the same level as last year, while the bonus more than doubled from $2.75 million in 1997. The two executives also got $710,000 in deferred compensation, seven times the $100,000 in deferred compensation they got in 1997.