VIDEO - CBS board in negotiations for CEO Moonves exit from the company: sources

CBS's board is deep in settlement talks with Chief Executive Les Moonves that would see his departure and the appointment of COO Joe Ianniello as interim CEO, people close to the negotiations say.

The talks between Moonves and his board have been going on for some time but have yet to reach a conclusion given continued back and forth about his exit package.

While under his contract he is due as much as $180 million in severance and a production deal, sources say the board is offering a roughly $100 million exit package made up almost entirely of CBS stock and wants the right to claw back some of that compensation if at the conclusion of an ongoing investigation into charges of sexual harassment, Moonves has been found to have committed other inappropriate acts.

As was widely reported Wednesday, CBS and its controlling shareholder National Amusements Inc. are currently negotiating a settlement to end their litigation about whether the CBS board has the right to vastly dilute the voting power of NAI. While it is possible the settlement with Moonves and between CBS and NAI could be announced simultaneously, sources tell me they are not linked.

CBS officials declined comment. The shares declined 2.5 percent in premarket trading Thursday.