Word: warners
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Wall Street that scenario had a socko preview last week. Stock of Time Warner, the $14.5 billion movie, cable-TV, recording, telecommunications, magazine-publishing giant and employer of Madonna, Metallica, Batman and the staff of this publication, leaped 11% on Tuesday alone, to $40 a share. It closed the week at $39. Some of the recent buying came from Seagram, the beverage giant, which boosted its holdings to 14.9% of Time Warner's shares. But more came from traders reacting to a sudden storm of rumors that Seagram's president, Edgar Bronfman Jr., had finally decided...
...blandly asserts: making a long-term, "passive" investment in a company whose future earnings promise a bigger return than Seagram's declining liquor business. One of Bronfman's oldest show-business friends, movie producer David Puttnam (Chariots of Fire), insists it is not even the entertainment side of Time Warner that most intrigues Bronfman but the prospect for future profits on the information superhighway. Says Puttnam: "The idea that he has stars in his eyes is just nonsense...
...case, a turning point seems to be close for Bronfman and for Time Warner chairman Gerald Levin, who are widely reported to have been negotiating in person. Bronfman has to decide whether to buy enough additional Time Warner shares to push Seagram's holdings past the 15% mark. If he does, Levin must ponder whether to activate a device known as a "poison pill" designed specifically to prevent any "unfriendly" investor from acquiring more than 15%. Essentially, the company would issue enough new stock to knock a 15% holding down to about 5% or less. That, in effect, would force...
There are compromises possible too. One being talked up among security analysts: Seagram would buy up to 25% of Time Warner stock, but Bronfman would guarantee to freeze its holdings there for a long time and not try to unseat the present management. Levin in return would leave the poison pill in the corporate medicine cabinet and let Seagram place one or two members on Time Warner's 15-person board, giving Bronfman a strong voice but not control. At minimum, Levin will need to have at least some preliminary answers next Thursday for stockholders attending the annual meeting...
...Seagram bid for control of Conoco, a giant oil and gas producer. It lost to Du Pont Co. but came out owning 24.3% of Du Pont stock, today worth around $9 billion. Seagram's management of that investment just might indicate what role it could play in Time Warner. The company has made no effort to take over Du Pont, but it sought and got proportional representation on the Du Pont board. Seagram counts as part of its own profits not just dividends from Du Pont but a proportionate share -- that is, 24% -- of Du Pont's undistributed earnings. Corporate...