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Company Profile - AOL Time Warner

AOL Time Warner Building
75 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10019

Phone: 212-484-8000
Fax: 212-489-6183
Website: www.aoltimewarner.com
Ticker Symbol: AOL

Key Facts

Born out of the world’s biggest media merger in January 2001.
Assets include print publications and online media sites, movie studios, cable networks, and music companies.
Currently shifting away from growth through acquisitions to focus on improving the performance of individual subsidiaries.
Key Financial Facts
2002 revenue: $41.1 billion
1-yr. growth rate: 6.8 percent

Personnel Highlights
Number of employees (2001): 89,300

Company Overview
If you’ve ever picked up a magazine, surfed the Web, gone to a movie, or watched the news, then you’ve probably encountered the media behemoth that is AOL Time Warner. The company owns a cluster of industry giants in interactive services, cable systems, publishing, music, cable networks, and filmed entertainment, and is responsible for Time and People magazines, America Online, Warner Brothers Studios, HBO and Cinemax, and cnn.com.

The media titan was born in January 2001, when AOL completed its $106 billion merger with Time Warner. The new company absorbed AOL’s 30 million members and 21 channels of content, as well as popular AOL products such as Netscape, the Winamp MP3 player, instant messaging software ICQ (80 million members), Digital City, and CompuServe, an interactive provider that services three million professionals and business owners. Time Warner’s contributions included eight publishing, film, music, and cable networks: Turner Broadcasting, HBO, Time Inc., Time Warner Trade Publishing, Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Warner Music Group, and Time Warner Cable.

The company maintained efforts towards continued aggressive growth via acquisitions throughout 2001, but disappointing revenue results and over-ambitious forecasting caused AOL Time Warner to lower initial expectations, much to shareholders disappointment. Some of the company’s problems have been due to the downturn in certain sectors, such as the Internet and Music industries, but the America Online division—despite its position as the largest interactive online service provider in the nation—has suffered a continued decrease in stock prices (more than 50 percent throughout 2002) and faces scrutiny by the SEC and Justice Department regarding its accounting practices.

Late in 2002, chairman Steve Case (former AOL CEO and top executive for American Online) unexpectedly announced he would vacate his post, causing speculation to arise that the media conglomerate may shed its ailing America Online division in order to restore some of its stock market standing, not to mention its reputation.

Major Line of Business : Entertainment & Sports, Internet & New Media, Journalism & Publishing

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