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AOL and Time Warner have finally called it quits. James Quinn looks at the souring of the dotcom match that appeared to have been made in mergers and acquisitions heaven It was an auspicious occasion, the business titans of the West standing shoulder to shoulder at the dawn of a new century. On the stage of the Shanghai International Convention Centre, in late September 1999, the crème de la crème of business achievement smiled at the hundreds of delegates, both Chinese and from around the world, who had gathered for the Fortune Global Forum. From AIG's Hank Greenberg to Viacom's...

Time magazine's August 10 edition with President Barack Obama on the cover (“Paging Dr. Obama”) trying to heal the nation in a photo illustration as a physician, wearing a white smock with a stethoscope around his neck, brings to seven the number of issues the magazine's cover has featured Obama just since November's election -- make that eight for the First Family if you add in June 1's genuflecting “The Meaning of Michelle.” Amongst the seven of President Obama: “Person of the Year” and Obama as FDR.

Time Warner (TWX Quote) said second-quarter earnings fell 34% to $519 million, or 43 cents a share, from $792 million, or 66 cents a share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings of 45 cents topped the estimates of analysts of 37 cents a share as surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Revenue in the quarter fell 9% to $6.8 billion. At Time Warner's content group, which is made up of the networks, filmed entertainment, publishing and corporate segments, revenue declined 6%. The content division saw adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization rise 4% in the period. The company said it's "on track"...

Time Warner unveiled plans Thursday to spin off AOL as an independent company, an end to the massive media media marriage formed in 2001. "We believe that a separation will be the best outcome for both Time Warner and AOL," said Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500) chief executive Jeff Bewkes, in a prepared statement. The 2001 merger between AOL and Time Warner was applauded at the time as a visionary attempt to meld old media with new media. But synergies between the two never materialized. [Snip] Bewkes said that an independent AOL will "have a better opportunity to achieve its...

Time Warner: Mag Group May Dive 30%, TV Dips Time Warner is anticipating that ad dollars at its Turner networks will fall in a mid-single-digit percentage range for the current April-June period, a top company executive said Wednesday. At the Time Inc. magazine group, a decline in the 30% range is possible. Time Warner also indicated it would be spinning off all or part of the AOL unit soon. CFO John Martin said one contributor to the expected Turner drop this quarter is a decline in international revenue. But he said that advertisers are also exercising options to cancel spending...

The city of Wilson, NC was tired of high internet, cable, and telephone prices, so they decided to do something about it. They started their own, city-owned, ISP. Now Time Warner Cable and Embarq have teamed up to convince North Carolina's legislature to propose bills outlawing community owned ISPs because the big guys cannot possibly compete.

Sue Polinsky had the first cable modem in Greensboro. Back in the late 1990s, when the Web designer found she needed more Internet speed than a telephone or DSL line could provide, she was happy to pay a premium. She’s been a Time Warner Cable customer ever since — even upgrading to the business-class service to run her company, Tech Triad, from home. But when she got wind of Time Warner’s plan to begin monitoring and capping how much data its Greensboro customers use, she said it could be summed up in one word. “Greed,” Polinsky said. “That’s all it...

The presidential candidate of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), the communist revolutionaries in El Salvador the Reagan administration battled in the 1980s, is, a Monday Washington Post story noted, “a former correspondent for CNN en Espanol.” In the March 9 article, “In El Salvador Vote, Big Opportunity for Leftists,” reporter William Booth relayed from San Salvador that the journalist-turned-politician “considers himself to be El Salvador's Barack Obama.” Booth relayed: After a 12-year civil war and a peace undermined by soaring crime, leftists in El Salvador are on the verge of completing a remarkable journey from armed struggle to...

The editors of Time Magazine make a big show of how they demand a separation of Advertising interests and Editorial as not to have any hint of impropriety. One wonders why they don't make the same separation with major investors. Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal who owns a big chunk of News Corp, also owns a big chunk of Time Magazine's parent company Time Warner. This partly explains the Middle East coverage provided by the Magazine and its sister company, CNN. The cover story of latest issue of Time Magazine, "Why Israel Can't Win" seems almost like a cheer leading section...

LOS ANGELES – "SpongeBob SquarePants" might get squeezed off Time Warner Cable. Media giant Viacom Inc. said its Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 16 other channels will go dark for 13 million subscribers at 12:01 a.m. Thursday if a new carriage fee deal with Time Warner Cable Inc. is not agreed upon by then. The impasse would mean "SpongeBob" and other popular shows like Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" and Stephen Colbert's "The Colbert Report" will be cut off on the nation's second-largest cable operator.

Viacom threatens to pull MTV off Time Warner CableAssociated Press - December 30, 2008 10:33 PM ET LOS ANGELES (AP) - Viacom is threatening to pull MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon and 16 other channels from Time Warner Cable if a new carriage fee deal is not agreed upon by midnight Wednesday. A Time Warner spokesman says Viacom is seeking "an exorbitant increase in their carriage fees." Viacom has asked for fee increases of between 22 and 36% per channel, adding up to tens of millions of dollars per year, an amount that Time Warner says would cause an increase...

License Plates for the Internet - The Blueprints for Obama's Assault on the Internet The report's recommendations emphasize taking away cybersecurity from DHS in order to create a special department to oversee cybersecurity. It recommends ending the division between civilian and national security systems. And calls for establishing "international norms" when it comes to the internet. And it focuses a good deal on identity verification, not just for Federal employees, but for ordinary Americans as well. The report urges a move away from passwords, and toward physical identity verification, via a device that would verify an individual's identity. And calls...

NEW YORK (AP) — You're used to paying extra if you use up your cell phone minutes, but will you be willing to pay extra if your home computer goes over its Internet allowance? Time Warner Cable Inc. customers — and, later, others — may have to, if the company's test of metered Internet access is successful. On Thursday, new Time Warner Cable Internet subscribers in Beaumont, Texas, will have monthly allowances for the amount of data they upload and download. Those who go over will be charged $1 per gigabyte, a Time Warner Cable executive told the Associated Press....

Mon Apr 14, 2008 5:30pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) will cut 450 jobs from New Line Cinema in a highly anticipated move following an earlier decision to fold the movie studio under the wing of Warner Bros Entertainment. About 40 of New Line's employees will be offered new jobs at Warner Bros in positions that will not displace existing Warner Bros jobs, a Time Warner spokesman said. Employees are being informed on Monday and Tuesday. About 40 to 50 existing New Line employees will remain at the division renowned for its blockbuster...

Time Warner Inc. has consolidated its Warner Bros. Entertainment and New Line Cinema, the studio behind the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, in an effort to cut costs and boost revenue. New Line Co-Chairmen Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne, two Hollywood veterans who have long been the core of the studio, will leave but are in talks for possible future business relationships with the company. The contracts of Mr. Shaye, 68 years old, and his one-time attorney Mr. Lynne, 66, are up at the end of the year. They said they would explore new entrepreneurial opportunities. They added, "New Line...

The last couple of days I've been seeing nearly constant interruptions of service, and quite a few slowdowns. I haven't changed anything here on my end. Of course, if it keeps up, I'll call customer service. I'm just wondering if I'm the only one seeing this.

If you're a Time Warner Cable subscriber, you can expect more High-Definition in the near future. Lots more. That's according to Time Warner's top executives who commented yesterday on the company's HD plans during an investors call with Wall Street analysts. COO Landel Hobbs told the analysts that the cable service now has carriage agreements with 53 high-def channels -- and deals with an additional 20 channels "pending." Hobbs said some Time Warner systems, such as Albany and San Antonio, are now offering more than 40 HD channels. But more HD channels are expected to be added soon throughout the...

Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) Inc., the world's largest media conglomerate, reported lower earnings in its fourth quarter Wednesday following a big gain in the year-ago period on the sale of AOL's online access business in Europe. Excluding the effect of that gain, earnings rose on stronger results at the company's cable TV and movie operations. Time Warner reported net income of $1.03 billion or 28 cents per share, versus $1.75 billion or 44 cents per share in the same period a year ago. Without the AOL gain a year ago and other one-time effects, the earnings were 29 cents per share...

Bay Area cable provider Comcast Corp. and San Jose-based eBay Inc. may be potential bidders for Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, as Microsoft Corp.'s offer for Yahoo Inc. threatens to knock out the two most likely suitors for the Internet unit, Pali Research said. There's a lack of buyers for AOL, Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Research, said Monday in a note. Still, Comcast Chief Executive Officer Brian Roberts may be interested in AOL to get its advertising network and Web site, he wrote. Roberts is unlikely to pay more than $10 billion, according to Greenfield. In 2000, AOL purchased...

Having a tornado demolish her home was bad enough. But weeks later when Ann Beam received a $2,000 cable bill for destroyed equipment, she was floored. "I just couldn't believe it," Beam said. "I was like: 'What are they thinking?"' Time Warner Cable billed a number of Wheatland residents for equipment damaged in the Jan. 7 twister... She immediately called the cable company but a man who identified himself as a manager said there was nothing the company could do. "They said I would have to take the bill and turn it in to my insurance company," ... But her...