CBS board of directors says it'll choose outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation of misconduct allegations by the company's CEO, Leslie Moonves.

The decision comes a couple of days after The New Yorker magazine published a story in which six women claimed Moonves harrased them between 1985 and 2006.

The board took no other immediate action.

Moonves is fighting over control of CBS with the company's largest shareholder, National Amusements.

National Amusements is owned by Shari Redstone, who also controls another media company, Viacom.

She has been pushing for the merger of the two firms.

But Moonves has been against it.

Reuters correspondent Carl O'Donnell is covering the story: (SOUNDBITE) (English) REUTERS CORRESPONDENT CARL O'DONNELL, SAYING: "If Les loses his position or resigns, that changes the power dynamic completely, and I think, again, it's all speculative because we don't know what's going to happen, right?

But the expectation, is if Les steps down, whoever replaces him is going to have, you know, be able to have much more of a dialogue with Sheri than Les has been.

They'll probably come up with a settlement over those lawsuits and that'll open the door back up to CBS - Viacom talks, so that's kind of the most likely or most widely speculated long-term outcome." CBS's stock plunged after The New Yorker's allegations.