AOL Time Warner Acknowledges Problems With AOL Accounting

FOX ^ | 8/15/02

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

NEW YORK

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Remember the Time 9/11 article?

[gov_bean_ counter]

This was a merger that should never have been allowed to happen. Any chance that the FBI/SEC will take a hard look (like they should have done the first time) at the initial filings?

IARM, it seemed that mergers took off during the Clinton Administration and that several of the companies having to restate earnings were the beneficiary of a relaxed standard by the Clinton Administration. Do you forsee any investigation into which brokerage firms handled the IPOs?

[gov_bean_ counter]

IPOs if new issues took place, or details of mergers in general, accountanting firms law firms, and the like.

[LenS]

AOL has a history of this. When the Internet first began catching on and AOL begin to make some nice money off of ads and subscribers, AOL quietly wrote off all their past retained earnings. In other words, all their previous profits were a fraud.

If I recall correctly, they'd been booking the costs of signing up new subscribers over a several year period even though most subscribers only lasted a year or less. Just a wee bit of fraudulent mismatching of expenses and revenues.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

The better question is what would have been permitted to occur by conservative owned corporations?

[Rebel_Ace]

You've got FRAUD!