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Information about Time Warner

Time Warner Inc.
Public (NYSE: TWX)
FoundedMerger between Time Inc. and Warner Communications (1990); subsequently purchased by AOL (2001)
HeadquartersNew York City, New York (incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware) [1]
Key peopleRichard D. Parsons, Chairman and CEO
Wayne Pace, CFO
Jeffrey L. Bewkes, President and COO
IndustryBroadcasting, publishing, Internet, telecommunications
ProductsSee list of assets owned by Time Warner.
Revenue$44.70 billion USD (2006)
Employees87,000 (2005)
Websitetimewarner.com


Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), formerly known as AOL Time Warner, is the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in New York City, with major operations in film, television, publishing, Internet service and telecommunications. Among its subsidiaries are AOL, Home Box Office, New Line Cinema, Time Inc., Time Warner Cable, Turner Broadcasting System, The CW, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Cartoon Network, and CNN.

History

Warner Communications was established in 1972 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations.

It was the parent company for Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Music Group during the 1970s and 1980s. It also owned DC Comics and Mad, as well as a majority stake in Garden State National Bank (an investment it was ultimately required to sell pursuant to requirements under the Bank Holding Company Act). Warner's initial divestiture efforts led by Garden State CEO Charles A. Agemian were blocked by Garden State board member William A. Conway in 1978; a revised transaction was later completed in 1980. Warner made considerable profits (and later losses) with Atari, which it owned from 1976 to 1984. In 1976, Nolan Bushnell sold his Atari company to Warner Communications for an estimated $28 - $32 million. While part of Warner, Atari achieved its greatest success, selling millions of Atari 2600s and computers. At its peak, Atari accounted for a third of Warner's annual income and was the fastest-growing company in the history of the United States at the time.

In the 1970s, Warner expanded under the guidance of CEO Steve Ross and formed a joint venture with American Express, named Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, which held cable channels including MTV, Nickelodeon and Showtime. Warner bought out American Express's half in 1984, and sold the venture a year later to Viacom, which renamed it MTV Networks.

In February 1983, Warner expanded their interests to baseball. Under the direction of Ceasar P. Kimmel, executive vice president, bought 48 percent of the Pittsburgh Pirates for $10 million. It then put up its share for sale in November 1984 following losses of $6 million. The team's elderly majority owner, John W. Galbreath, soon followed suit after learning of Warner's actions. [2]

Turner Broadcasting logo


In 1984, due to the video game crash of 1983, Warner sold the consumer division of Atari to Jack Tramiel. It kept the arcade division and renamed it Atari Games. They sold Atari Games to Namco in 1985, and repurchased it in 1994, renaming it Time-Warner Interactive, until it was sold to Midway Games in 1996. Meanwhile, In 1987, it was announced that Warner Communications and Time Inc. were to merge. The last thing Warner did before the merger closed in 1989 was to buy out Lorimar-Telepictures. In early 1990, the combined companies were named Time Warner. This company subsequently acquired Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting System in October 1996.

Time Warner had also been owner of the Six Flags Theme Parks chain during the 1990s after near bankruptcy. It sold all Six Flags parks and properties to Oklahoma based Premier Parks on April 1st, 1998.

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1999 Time Warner logo
In 2000, a new company called AOL Time Warner was created when AOL purchased Time Warner for US$164bn.[3] The deal, announced on 10 January 2000[4] and officially filed on 11 February 2000,[5] employed a merger structure in which each original company merged into a newly created entity. The Federal Trade Commission cleared the deal on December 14, 2000,[6] and gave final approval on January 11, 2001; the company completed the merger later that day.[7] The deal was approved on the same day by the Federal Communications Commission,<ref name="fcc-aoltw" /> and had already been cleared the European Commission on 11 October 2000.[8] The shareholders of AOL owned 55% of the new company while Time Warner shareholders owned only 45%,<ref name="aoltw-merger-pressrelease" /> meaning that the smaller AOL had in fact bought out the far larger Time Warner.

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AOL Time Warner logo
After the merger, the profitability of the ISP division (America Online) decreased. Meanwhile, the market valuation of similar independent internet companies drastically fell. As a result, the value of the America Online division dropped significantly. This forced a goodwill write down, causing AOL Time Warner to report a loss of $99 billion in 2002 - at the time, the largest loss ever reported by a company.

In response to the huge loss in 2002, the company dropped the "AOL" from its name, and removed Steve Case as executive chairman in favor of Richard Parsons, with AOL remaining a part of the company. Case resigned from the Time Warner board on October 31, 2005.[9]

Since the merger, a number of transactions have taken place:
  • The professional wrestling company WCW was sold to competitor WWE for $7 million.
  • The Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers, and operating rights to Philips Arena were sold in mid-2003.
  • The fifty percent share in the cable channel Comedy Central was sold to Viacom.
  • Warner Music Group was sold to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. in March 2004.
  • AOL/Netscape's longrunning litigation against Microsoft was settled out of court.
  • Time Warner announced that it was shutting down its CNNfn financial information channel and disposing of its share in Google (2004).
  • On March 31, 2006 Time Warner sold the Time Warner Book Group to French publisher Hachette Livre, of the Lagardere group.
  • On February 7, 2006, a group led by corporate raider Carl Icahn and Lazard Frères CEO Bruce Wasserstein unveiled a 343-page proposal calling for the breakup of Time Warner into four companies and stock buybacks totaling approximately $20 billion. On February 17, 2006, the Icahn-lead group agreed with Time Warner to not contest the re-election of TW's slate of board members at the 2006 shareholders meeting. In exchange for the Icahn group's cooperation, Time Warner will buy back up to $20 billion of stock, nominate more independent members to the board of directors, cut $1 billion of costs by 2007, and continue discussions with the Icahn group over their proposal, particularly on the future of Time Warner Cable.
  • On February 23, 2006, Time Warner announced that Turner South, a regional sports and entertainment network in the south, will be sold to News Corp.'s Fox Cable Networks group.
  • On September 12, 2006, Time Inc. announced that Time4 Media, a group of men's interest magazines including Popular Science and Outdoor Life was to be put up for sale. The sale will include 18 publications (including three parenting-related titles).
  • In the fall of 2006, the Atlanta Braves were sold to Liberty Media in a deal that returned vast amounts of Liberty-owned Time Warner stock back into the company's folds.

The CW Television Network

On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Time Warner announced that they were to create a new broadcast network, The CW Television Network. The network officially debuted on September 18, 2006. The network formally debuted on September 20 with the 2 hour premiere of America's Next Top Model.

The network is the result of a merger of The WB Television Network (a Time Warner holding) and UPN (a CBS Corporation holding). CBS Corporation and Time Warner each own 50% of the network. Tribune Broadcasting (previously owned a 25% stake on The WB) and CBS Corporation contributed its stations as new network affiliates.

Services

Time Warner Cable has since re-expanded and offers the following services:

Time Inc.

The Time Inc. division publishes approximately 150 titles worldwide. It is the leading magazine publisher in the U.S. and UK, and is understood to be profitable at US$5 billion in annual revenues.[10] As of January 2007, the unit is experiencing downsizing.[11] In January 2007, the Bonnier Magazine Group agreed to acquire 18 magazines that Time Inc. was divesting. The magazines in the package employed 550 people and included Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Ski, Yachting, and TransWorld Snowboarding, as well as 11 other titles that were part of Time Inc.'s Time4Media Group. Also included were Parenting, and Baby Talk, which were part of the Parenting Group.[12]

Financials

In 2004, Time Warner's market capitalization was $84 billion. When the AOL-Time Warner merger was announced in January 2000, the combined market capitalization was $280 billion.

For fiscal year 2002 the company reported a $99 billion loss on its income statement [13] because of $100 billion in non-recurring charges, almost all from a writedown of the goodwill (intangible asset) from the merger in 2000. (The value of the AOL portion of the company had dropped sharply with the collapse of the Internet boom, in the early 2000s.)

Commercial properties

Time Warner Inc. owns several large properties in New York City; certain buildings in the Rockefeller Center complex and adjacent office towers house its main offices; one of which houses a CNN news studio. In late 2003, Time Warner finished construction of a new twin-tower complex, designed to serve as additional office space, facing Columbus Circle on the southwestern edge of Central Park. Originally called the AOL Time Warner Center, the 755-foot, 55-floor mixed-use property was renamed Time Warner Center when the company itself was renamed.

Board of directors

As of Jan 2007.

Senior Executives

Time Warner Inc.

Subsidiaries

Competition

Time Warner faces industry competition from traditional media companies such as CBS Corporation, News Corporation, and Viacom, as well as online search portals such as Yahoo!, and Google for competition of viewer attention which translates to ad sales. According to the recent 10Q, in order to remain competitive, Time Warner and AOL must keep pace with rapid technological changes on the internet. Time Warner's business may be severely impacted by the increasing 'piracy' of feature films, television programming and other content which decreases company revenues.[14]

AOL's subscriber base is declining, and declines are expected to continue, adversely affecting subscription and advertising revenue. As more individuals are using non-PC devices to access the Internet, AOL is under pressure to secure placement of its services and applications on mobile devices.

Box office receipts and the growth rate of DVD sales have recently been declining, which adversely affects Warner Brothers' growth prospects and revenues.[15]

Controversy

Time Warner has been criticized for its funding associated with Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood has been accused by pro-life organizations of agreeing not to report cases of statutory rape to the authorities; for example, a pro-life activist, posing as a 13-year-old impregnated by her 22-year-old boyfriend, called over 800 clinics requesting an abortion. She claimed that in most cases, the clinics agreed to her request not to report the boyfriend to the police for statutory rape.[16]. Pro-life groups have listed Planned Parenthood as a boycott target, including Life Decisions International. This in turn means they will bycott corporations that fund Planned Parenthood, including Time Warner Inc. The group claims to have stopped 157 companies from funding the "abortion commiting goliath." Time Warner Inc. has yet to stop its funding to Planned Parenthood, and has yet to show any sign of doing so.[17]

See also

Past names

Footnotes

1. ^ Corporate Governance, TimeWarner website
2. ^ Galbreaths to Sell Pirates PITTSBURGH, New York Times
3. ^ Top Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) Deals (2007-03-28). Retrieved on 2007-05-05.
4. ^ America Online and Time Warner Will Merge to Create World's First Internet-Age Media and Communications Company. Time Warner corporate homepage (10 January 2000). Retrieved on 2007-05-06.
5. ^ Federal Communications Commission (25 March 2003). America Online-Time Warner Merger Page. Federal Communications Commission homepage. Retrieved on 2007-05-06.
6. ^ Federal Trade Commission (14 December 2000). FTC Approves AOL/Time Warner Merger with Conditions. Federal Trade Commission website. Retrieved on 2007-05-06.
7. ^ Patrick Ross, Evan Hansen (11 January 2001). AOL, Time Warner complete merger with FCC blessing. CNET News.com. Retrieved on 2007-05-06.
8. ^ EU statement: AOL, Time Warner. BBC News Online (11 October 2000). Retrieved on 2007-05-06.
9. ^ CNN.com
10. ^ NYPost
11. ^ NYTimes January 2007
12. ^ NY Post
13. ^ TWX annual statement
14. ^
15. ^ Recent 10Q Report
16. ^ "Pro-Life Group Launches Undercover Sting", Fox News, 2002-05-31. Retrieved on 2007-03-12. 
17. ^ Life Decisions International - Press Room. Life Decisions International. Retrieved on 2007-08-14.

External links

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), nicknamed the "Big Board", is a New York City-based stock exchange. It is the largest stock exchange in the world by dollar volume and, with 2,764 listed securities[1], has the second most securities of all stock exchanges.
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Time Inc. is a major subsidiary of the media conglomerate Time Warner, the company formed by the 1990 merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications.

It publishes 130 magazines [1] , most notably its namesake, Time.
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Time Warner Inc.

Public (NYSE: TWX )
Founded Merger between Time Inc. and Warner Communications (1990); subsequently purchased by AOL (2001)
Headquarters New York City, New York (incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware) [1]

Key people Richard D.
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AOL LLC

Subsidiary of Time Warner
Founded 1985 (as Quantum Computer Services)
Headquarters New York, New York, United States

Key people Randy Falco, Ted Leonsis, Ronald Grant
Industry Internet & Communications
Products Internet service
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Richard Dean Parsons (born April 4, 1948), is the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Time Warner. He is also on the board of directors of Citigroup. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Parsons graduated from the University of Hawaii, at 6'9" tall he played varsity
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director is an officer (that is, someone who works for the company) charged with the conduct and management of its affairs. A director may be an inside director (a director who is also an officer or promoter or both) or an outside, or independent, director.
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Chief Executive Officer (CEO), or chief executive, is the highest-ranking corporate officer, administrator, corporate administrator, executive, or executive officer, in charge of total management of a corporation, company, organization or agency.
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Wayne H. Pace (born 1946 or 1947) is currently the chief financial officer and executive vice president of Time Warner Inc.. He has served as CFO since November of 2001. He attended Austin Peay State University where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting and economics
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Jeffrey L. Bewkes is the President and COO of the Time Warner media conglomerate as of December 2005.

Bewkes was CEO of Home Box Office between 1995 and July 2002. Bewkes was president and COO of HBO between 1991 and 1995. Bewkes was CFO for HBO between 1986 and 1991.
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President is a title held by many leaders of organizations, companies, trade unions, universities, and countries. Etymologically, a "president" is one who presides , who sits in leadership (from Latin prae- "before" + sedere "to sit"; giving the term
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A Chief Operating Officer or Chief Operations Officer (COO) is a corporate officer responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the corporation. The COO is one of the highest ranking members of an organization, monitoring the daily operations of the company
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Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults.
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Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers.
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Time Warner Inc. is the world's largest media company with major Internet, publishing, film, telecommunications and television divisions.

This is a listing of all of its brands, as shown at the company's website.
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