Word: levins
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...Levin's company had remained inextricably mired in its own past, a dinosaur lurching its way through a world that would soon belong to swifter creatures, almost pathetically unable--like all the major media companies--to make the Great Leap Forward into the new Internet economy. The company's stock price had plateaued in a year in which Net stocks soared, and there was little excitement about the plans being developed in its recently hatched digital division, despite projected outlays this year of $500 million. "We had a big uphill job as a corporation" to catch up with the established...
...Levin reasoned that Time Warner without an Internet connection was still valuable, but its value to an Internet buyer was greater. So he arrived at 1.5 AOL shares to be exchanged for each TWX share. In real money, that was 70% more than Time Warner's $65 price the Friday before the deal was announced, but it would still give AOL shareholders 55% of the company. Conversely, Time Warner was providing 80% of the cash flow. Says Levin: "If some people think that AOL has been sold at too much of a discount or Time Warner has been sold...
...deal finally became real on the night of Jan. 6 at a dinner for Case, Levin, Novack and Bressler at Case's northern Virginia house. What began with a bottle of 1990 Chateau Leoville-Las Cases ("dazzling concentration, as well as fine acidity"--wine critic Robert Parker) in the living room and ended with chocolate mousse at the table became semiofficial when Case and Levin broadly agreed to a merger. They also agreed to sleep on it, and after midnight Bressler and Levin flew back to New York on a Time Warner jet. Novack and Bressler spoke...
...operating company than it was a stock price, the financial expression of a series of disconnected assets. Unlike other media megaliths like Disney or News Corp., where a nearly totemic central figure--Michael Eisner and Rupert Murdoch, respectively--conceives the strategy and orders it into place, Time Warner under Levin has been an extremely successful dysfunctional family. Six powerful executives, ranging from Roger Ames of the music group to Terry McGuirk of the Turner networks, run six huge businesses, and their rivalry with external competitors often consumes less energy than their alpha-male, intramural head butting. When the cable division...
...year-old Pittman. Himself a former Time Warner executive, Pittman is the highest-ranking manager in either company who made his bones in both the entertainment business and the digital world. Within hours of the deal's announcement, the corporate handicappers had tabbed him as Levin's successor. He had better be patient. According to an investment banker who knows both men, recalling the 1992 blitzkrieg with which Levin deposed his predecessor, N.J. Nicholas Jr., "betting against Jerry Levin in a boardroom struggle would be a big mistake." Especially when, as in this case, it would take a 75% vote...