Ted Turner has lost 89% of his $10.5BN Fortune [AOL in Freefall]

The New York Post ^ | July 26, 2002 | Paul Tharp

[My2Cents]

As usual, God has the last word. Thanks for the quote from Proverbs.

[johniegrad]

Slick: Somebody needs to tell Ted that the stock is a bargain at today's prices and that he should buy, buy, buy!!

[habs4ever]

He was using his high priced stock to swap into cable assets.It's better to acquire with a very high P/E than the opposite, especially when the technology is making his edge obsolete.How he chose to manage his personal assets is his biz, but AOL got the better of the deal :-)

[PBRSTREETGANG]

just $24.5 million. I must have a cold, stone heart because it refuses to bleed for this poor, poor man. How will he shelter, clothe and feed himself on such a paltry sum?

And that's just his stock option nest egg. I don't get too worked up over the losses of the super-rich, however Levin's son was murdered in New York a few years back. Money can't buy you everything.

[hattend]

Turner has managed to unload millions of his shares in the last two months of the stock-price slide. He sold $365.1 million worth of his shares, less than 10 percent, before the worst hit.

Are the Dems calling for his head on a platter for selling before the crash? What kind of insider deal did he have and when did he have it?

[dighton]

Gerald Levin has become a tragic figure over the magnitude of his losses. His 29-years at the company gave him a stock and option nest egg valued at around $529 million at the time of the merger. Today it's worth just $24.5 million.

Great catch.

Tragic figure bump.

[RabidBartender]

So THAT'S who's been buying that idiot Michael Moore's stupid book. All this time I thought he was buying dozens of copies and then returning them.

[WKB]

Couldn't happen to a better guy.
Mind-reader

Ditto

[Publius6961]

This total waste of skin is down to under just over a billion$?

I may never be able to sleep again, worrying about it...

[Publius6961]

Guess this means the UN will be getting jack. After Turner pledeged one billion over 10 years.

What are you talking about?
He still has over a billion...

Oh.

[Orual]

Tragic figure bump.

Poor little rich man.

"How do the wealthy deal with this financial downturn? Switch from imported to domestic caviar? Opt for a Lexus SC over the BMW roadster? Board up that third mansion in the south of France?"

[Spirited]

"Look at the bright side. Those to whom she gave the stock have a scrunch less money than they once did!"

Look at it clearly, that means the organizations will pull it out of the government till instead (i.e. your tax dollars). Since they have access at will under any administration we the people are suffer the loss.

[MotleyGirl70]

Is it possible to hate Ted Turner more than Bill Clinton????

[Cowboy Bob]

I can't wait to see the latest issue of the Forbes 500!

[bert]

wanted: AOL discs version 1.0 and 2.0 or any less than version 3.0

[wardaddy]

Time Warner shareholders will receive 1.5 shares of AOL Time Warner for each share of Time Warner stock they own while AOL shareholders will receive one share of AOL Time Warner stock for each share of AOL they own.

This was an all stock deal with AOL getting 55% of the new stock. It would seem to me that Case, Parsons, and Pittman of the AOL side have all seen the AOL/TW shares they converted to slide the same as Levin and Ted and Malone. What number of those said shares and options they exercised at a higher value is not known to me. I do believe I read that Pittman had exercised some of his options much earlier long before he was canned. The main winners in this horribly overvalued deal were the M&A folks and the saavy folks who timed the bump and slide correctly. At this juncture I fail to see how this merger has helped Steve Case. His stock has fallen from nearly 100 or so to now less than 10.

[bert]

A huge stake held by John Malone's Liberty Media was valued at $10.5 billion.....

Mr Malone is probabaly raising all the cash he can find to gain control. What an opportunity to pick up and rebuild the remains.

[cake_crumb]

I just thought of something...can we start asking Ted, "Do you remember when you said (any of a thousand obnoxious things here)? Well, PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS NOW!!"

Teddy's also a Clintonista. I doubt he gets much help from the current administration. I hope not.

[general_re]

I wouldn't worry too much about Ted. He's devoted his life to the media, and I predict he'll bounce back and find some way back on to America's televisions before too long...