Time Warner was “bought out” by AOL in the 1990s in a hostile takeover. Then, after the sale was official, AOL opened their books to reveal that much of that money was built on speculation of AOL’s future subscriber base and wasn’t real.
Lotsa pissed-off TW employees as the stock did a nosedive from over $100/share to under $10/share. Yes, indeed. Since TW had a generous stock purchase plan for employees, a lot of employees were heavily invested.
The AOL Board were quickly dispatched in a palace coup so the top dogs became TW people but the damage was done. Time Warner Cable was then split off from the rest of Time Warner because it was considered the most profitable asset so it could be sold to keep the other divisions afloat.
I remember that.......................
And AT&T just bought TW, so it all begins again