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Time Warner Focus Turns to Possible Breakup

Posted Dec 28, 07 10:19 AM CST in Business    Editor's Choice

(Newser) – What do you do when you take over the world’s biggest media company? If you’re new Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes, you probably sharpen some knives. Bewkes may soon spin off AOL as well as the conglomerate’s cable and magazine divisions, Bloomberg reports. “There’s nothing special necessarily about being the biggest,” argues one expert who manages 11.3 million Time Warner shares.

After the paring down, Time would be left with its movie and TV network businesses, resembling Viacom in size and, hopefully, share price. Viacom trades at nine times earnings, Time at just seven. “You have to make sure your two businesses are rocking,” said one analyst, whose company holds 2.29 million Time shares. “People are used to this stock going nowhere.”

Source Bloomberg

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People walk by the Time Warner building, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007, in New York. (AP Photo/Diane Bondareff)   (Associated Press)
The twin 750-foot glass-walled skyscrapers of the Time Warner Center rise 80 stories above New York's Columbus Circle in this Feb. 4, 2004 file photo. This photo was taken from Trump International Hotel...   (Associated Press)
Newly appointed Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes is seen in New York in this Oct. 5, 2007 file photo. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)   (Associated Press)
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