![]() “I think everybody’s a winner,” Patricof told The Daily Beast. Prominent tech venture capitalist Alan Patricof, who was present at the creation of AOL as one of its original investors, also endorsed the Verizon acquisition. Referring to Rupert Murdoch’s $80 billion takeover bid last year after Time Warner spun off Time Warner Cable and Time Inc., Bewkes said: “And, by the way, we knew that spinning off cable, magazines and AOL would make Time Warner itself a potential target, which happened when Murdoch showed up…But we did all these things with the knowledge, as any banker can tell you, that if put a clear asset together in the market, that’s likely to get consolidated.” We knew it was a reasonable possibility.” Remember that great Stevie Wonder song? New York City is ‘just like I pictured it’!”īewkes added: “When we did this, neither Tim nor I had an explicit plan or agreement to have AOL, once it was spun, necessarily merge or get bought by another company. “This is exactly what we said would happen. The fact that the company is today selling at more than a billion dollars over its estimated market cap at the time of the spin-off, when the stock was in the 20s and later dipped to 11, validates that judgment, Bewkes argued. “We all woke up this morning, saw this, and basically we high-fived each other,” Bewkes said, noting that the strategy to spin off AOL, rather than sell it outright and take an income tax hit, was the right one to create value for Time Warner and AOL shareholders. Still, in an interview Tuesday with The Daily Beast, Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Bewkes-who six years ago hired Armstrong to revive Time Warner’s troubled subsidiary as it spun off as an independent company-enthusiastically applauded the Verizon deal. “The AOL brand is as dead today as it was yesterday-you can decide how dead that is.” “This deal does nothing for AOL as a brand,” said a knowledgeable investor, who spoke to The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity. ![]() AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong, who presided over the December 2009 spinoff from Time Warner, is a close second in the winner’s circle, seeing his net worth rise $60 million in just the 24 hours from Monday to Tuesday-given his six percent ownership stake-from Verizon’s $50-a-share acquisition offer.Īs for historically troubled AOL-a brand which, 15 years after the fact, remains indelibly linked to the ruinous merger with Time Warner, an of act of corporate abandon that ultimately vaporized $125 billion in shareholder equity-the implications are less certain. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |