Chris Moseley, former chief marketing officer for the company that runs Hallmark Channel, is getting a severance package valued at more than $1 million after exiting the business last month, according to a securities filing.
The details of Moseley’s termination agreement were outlined in a 10-Q filed Wednesday by Crown Media Holdings Inc., which owns and operates Hallmark. Crown also revealed Wednesday that president and CEO David Evans is exiting the company June 16.
According to the 10-Q, under an agreement dated April 12, Moseley will get $923,556, which is equal to her salary for the remainder of her employment contract and one year’s salary; as well as a $152,052 payment that represents her pro rata bonus, unused vacation time and the remaining car allowance provided for in her contract.
Crown is also providing Moseley with payment or reimbursement for COBRA coverage for a full year after the expiration of her employment contract. That contract had been due to expire July 15. She left Crown Media April 21.
And Moseley will receive relocation costs of up to $35,000 if she relocates from Los Angeles before Oct. 22.
As part of her severance, in June, there will be a settlement of the roughly 40,000 shares of restricted Crown stock Moseley owns, which will be vested May 29.
Evans decided to leave Crown before the September expiration of his contract “in order to pursue new challenges in his career,” Crown said in a press release.
In a first-quarter call with analysts, Evans said it had been his plan to leave Crown for some time, and he thought now was a good time to step down.
Crown’s board retained executive-recruiting firm Spencer Stuart to commence a search for a permanent replacement for Evans. Paul FitzPatrick, executive vice president and chief operating officer, will assume Evans' responsibilities until a new CEO is named.
News of Evans’ departure came nearly one month after Crown said it was taking Hallmark off the block after trying for nine months to find a buyer for the network.
The company now expects to cut costs by $10 million-$13 million, in part by trimming marketing expenses, officials said during the conference call.
Crown reported net revenue for the first quarter of $45 million, an 11% increase from $40.6 million in the first quarter of last year. Subscriber-fee revenue grew 35%, to $6.2 million from $4.6 million. Crown had a net loss of $47.2 million for the quarter, or 45 cents per share, versus $50.9 million (49 cents) in the year-ago quarter.
