Turner quits as AOL Time Warner posts massive loss

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | January 30, 2003 | Colin Kruger

[snopercod]

The flamboyant career of the man who invented 24-hour cable news, Ted Turner, ended yesterday when he quit as vice-chairman of the AOL Time Warner media group after it announced a $US98.7 billion ($167 billion) annual loss - the largest in US corporate history.

Mr Turner, who once said he wanted to be America's "conscience", said he wanted to devote more time to philanthropic interests and "several socially responsible business efforts".

The CNN founder said yesterday: "I have not come to this decision lightly ... As you know, this company has been a significant part of my life for over 50 years."

However, AOL Time Warner said Mr Turner is expected to remain on its board.

AOL Time Warner's losses stem from write-downs in the company's assets, reflecting the $US100 billion in value that has been wiped from its share price in the past 18 months.

The scale of the losses underscores how much value has evaporated from what once was the largest and most heralded merger in corporate history, the ultimate marriage between old and new media.

Mr Turner's resignation ends a remarkable media journey. Starting out with 250 employees working out of an old clubhouse in Atlanta, Georgia, he transformed news broadcasting.

For many, the cable station's high point was its coverage of the 1991 Gulf War, when two of its correspondents reported live to the world from a Baghdad hotel room as the bombs rained down.

That year Time magazine named Mr Turner its man of the year, saying that under his direction the very definition of news had been rewritten - "from something that has happened to something that is happening at the very moment you are hearing of it ... A war involving the fiercest air bombardment in history unfolded in real time - before the cameras ..."

Mr Turner sold the business to Time Warner in 1996 but fiercely opposed the latter's merger with AOL, announced in January 2000.

The acquisition was predicted to reshape the corporate landscape for companies as diverse as Disney, the US telecom giant AT&T and Microsoft.

The plan was to open AOL's subscriber base, and hundreds of millions of internet users, to Time Warner movies, music and publications, but the going proved harder than expected.

AOL, the new-economy dynamo, failed to live up to the dotcom hype or the inflated share price that financed the purchase.

The portents of disaster came when the company revealed that the revenues and subscriber numbers for its online business fell for the first time last year. Only "stellar performances" at Time Warner propped up the group's sales, it said.

[Grampa Dave]

vannrox gets an A+++++++++++++++++++++ for this excellent analysis of why this left wing corporation is starting to go the old lib run belly up mode. Vannrox posted:

You know why this is loss is so large and so visible right now, don't you...

Remember Bush proposed and Congress agreed to make Corporate Leader Personally responsible for the fraud in their companies...and that each company would have to honestly disclose the correct figures or face serious consequences.

That explains why Ted Turner stepped down and the company posted such huge losses.

Obviously TIME-WARNER, AOL (all big bastons of Liberalism) were propped up like an empty house of cards. They are all falling down now. Boo Hoo. -----------------------------------------------------------

We need to remember these failed and failing lib corporations whenever a left winger says that GW is destroying the markets and the economy. Most of the so called failures has been with the lib run whore house posing as sound corporation.

There will be more AOl/TIME WARNERS doing the Dead Lib Company staggering to oblivion this year. This is not GW's fault. It is a result of crooked/lying ceo's and boards of the lib run corporations.

[Gargantua]

"Time wounds all heels"

[StopGlobalWhining]

And this is the guy who promised to "...crush Rupert Murdoch like a bug." back in October 1996 when Murdoch announced a new 24 hr news cable channel to compete with CNN.

[Mudboy Slim]

"You know why this is loss is so large and so visible right now, don't you...
Remember Bush proposed and Congress agreed to make Corporate Leader Personally responsible for the fraud in their companies...and that each company would have to honestly disclose the correct figures or face serious consequences. That explains why Ted Turner stepped down and the company posted such huge losses. Obviously TIME-WARNER, AOL (all big bastons of Liberalism) were propped up like an empty house of cards. They are all falling down now. Boo Hoo."

Excellent FReepin' point, my FRiend...DEAD ON TARGET!!!

FReegards...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

"You know why this is loss is so large and so visible right now, don't you...
Remember Bush proposed and Congress agreed to make Corporate Leader Personally responsible for the fraud in their companies...and that each company would have to honestly disclose the correct figures or face serious consequences. That explains why Ted Turner stepped down and the company posted such huge losses. Obviously TIME-WARNER, AOL (all big bastons of Liberalism) were propped up like an empty house of cards. They are all falling down now. Boo Hoo."

LOL...Excellent FReepin' point to YOU, vannrox...Grampa Dave's quoting you without using quotes...LOL!!

FReegards to both...MUD

[Liz]

We need to remember these failed and failing lib corporations whenever a left winger says that GW is destroying the markets and the economy. Most of the so called failures has been with the lib run whore house posing as sound corporation. There will be more AOl/TIME WARNERS doing the Dead Lib Company staggering to oblivion this year. This is not GW's fault. It is a result of crooked/lying ceo's and boards of the lib run corporations.

Excellent point. Irresponsibility ruled the Clinton era starting at the top. Now corporate wrongdoers and their political enablers are reaping what they have sown. B/c the fallout is happening on Bush's watch, the Dumbocrats want to make it his failure. Fat chance, I say.

[Mudboy Slim]

Perhaps the Ignorant RAT-DOLT, Teddy Turner, will learn that demeaning the Lord is not a wise financial decision, Rose...then again, perhaps NOT!!

I hope he's forced to sell the A-Braves...MUD

[Aquinasfan]

[Turner] said he wanted to devote more time to philanthropic interests and "several socially responsible business efforts"

Too bad his shares have lost 80% of their value. Really too bad.

[George W. Bush]

"You know why this is loss is so large and so visible right now, don't you...

Well, don't discount the theory that they finally got sick of the aging playboy blowhard idiot and decided a revenue loss like this one was the perfect time to dump his rotting carcass into a shallow grave.

There's a happy thought, eh? I try to be an optimist.

[George W. Bush]

All the reports say he wants to arrange to buy back CNN from AOL.

Oh, please, Lord, let this happen so we can crush him a second time with Fox News...

[Grampa Dave]

I posted yesterday that real bean counters held a come to you know what meeting.

As a result Case is leaving. One of the options the bean counters put up was to sell CNN which is losing them money since Fox has kicked their left wing clymers re viewers.

Teddy Fonda, got up and said "You will sell CNN over my dead body!"

I won't print the response the bean counters gave Teddy Fonda. However, he is going west to breed his buffaloes and spend more time with his only friends/family, his buffaloes after hearing their response.

[George W. Bush]

Teddy Fonda, got up and said "You will sell CNN over my dead body!"

What a cheerful thought.

[Mudboy Slim]

"...they finally got sick of the aging playboy blowhard idiot and decided a revenue loss like this one was the perfect time to dump his rotting carcass into a shallow grave."

Mr. President, sir, won't it be wonderful when the DemonRATS deal Slick Willie a similar fate due to the RATS electoral losses?!

Keep up the great leadership, sir...REAL Americans are behind you 100%...MUD

[Grampa Dave]

I want him to live a very long and very lonely life with his buffaloes.

That is the best punishment for these left lunatics is to break their control of power, make them lonely and unwanted and then let them live decades of depression.

[Mudboy Slim]

"Mr Turner, who once said he wanted to be America's "conscience", said he wanted to devote more time to philanthropic interests and "several socially responsible business efforts"."

I've GOT a Conscience, you self-impressed MORON, and it ain't YOU, Mr. Fonda!! Anybody who shamelessly supports Slick Willie's mass-murder of 78 innocent Americans at Waco has NO CONSCIENCE WHATSOEVER, imho...MUD

[Grampa Dave]

All the reports say he wants to arrange to buy back CNN from AOL.

If this is true, this will be even more of a wonderful punishment. This is like the hog Rosie buying that magazine and sinking millions into it and then having to bury it or sell it if she can find a buyer.

All the reports say he wants to arrange to buy back CNN from AOL.

Hopefully, this will happen, and Teddy Fonda will sink every last penny he owns into CNN. He will make it even more arrogant and left wing. That will make it like other left wing organizations, a dying critter just waiting for the final curtain call.

[George W. Bush]

I want him to live a very long and very lonely life with his buffaloes.

I want him to be forced to sell all that land he bought. It distorts real estate values. There are rural school districts ruined by his tax shenanigans, local tax bases run up because he paid way too much. Also, he sucks up federal money in other ways. Let him sell the land to real ranchers and sink all the proceeds into CNN and the U.N.

Just my preferences.

[HamiltonJay]

Mr Turner sold the business to Time Warner in 1996 but fiercely opposed the latter's merger with AOL, announced in January 2000

As much as I dislike Turner's politics, he is a shrewd businessman and was damned right to oppose the the AOL/TIME WARNER merger. One of the worst fiasco's in American business...

[Grampa Dave]

Hey, if he buys CNN to save it as you noted, he will have sell everything but his used BVD's to raise the money.

He will have limited time and will lose money on every invested as they will be sold like fire sell items.

Since you apparenly live near some of his land holdings, you might want to make a few discreet contacts with some realtor friends. Have them notify you if he is trying to sell his properties. If so, we will know that he is liquidating to buy CNN!

[Grampa Dave]

Coorection: He will have limited time and will lose money on every investment as they will be sold like fire sell items.