ITV

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  • Icahn announces agreement with Time Warner, Co to repurchase $20 billion of stock

    Icahn announces agreement with Time Warner, Co to repurchase $20 billion of stock

    MUMBAI: Investor Carl C. Icahn and Time Warner Inc announced that they have reached an agreement regarding specific actions the company will take to improve its capital, corporate and cost structures.

    Icahn said that he will drop his bid to seek control of the company and Time Warner will do some of the things the dissident shareholder has recommended. These actions are key to achieving the Icahn Group’s long-stated goal of creating value for all shareholders and have proved again that shareholder activism can be extremely effective.

    The agreement calls for Icahn not to contest the company’s slate of directors at its shareholders meeting in May. In return, Time Warner will increase its share repurchase program from $12.5 billion to $20 billion, matching a figure proposed in a report Icahn released last week calling for a major restructuring of the media giant.

    Time Warner’s actions include the following:

    * Time Warner will increase its existing share repurchase program from $12.5 billion to $20 billion. The company will commit to maintaining an accelerated pace of repurchases that enables it to repurchase a total of $15 billion by year end 2006. The remaining $5 billion will be purchased during 2007
    * Time Warner will implement a $1 billion company-wide cost-cutting program
    * Management confirmed that a different capital and corporate structure for Time Warner Cable may be appropriate. Management committed to continue to discuss this with the Icahn Group
    * Time Warner will work with the Icahn Group in reviewing the other initiatives proposed in the Lazard Report
    * Time Warner will appoint two new independent members to its Board of Directors and will consult with the Icahn Group in this process

    Furthermore, Time Warner has taken several other significant steps to enhance long term value. These include beginning initial strategic initiatives at AOL, the divestiture of Warner Books and the merger of the WB network with the UPN network.

    As head of an investors’ group that owns more than 3 percent of Time Warner, Icahn has sought to reorganize the company under new management. Mr. Icahn said,”I am pleased by the many initiatives Dick Parsons has agreed to undertake and as a result I do not intend to nominate directors this year. However, I remain committed to the tenets of the Lazard Report and hope to be able to convince Dick, in our future meetings, to accept a number of its recommendations.”

    Icahn’s retreat is a victory for Parsons, who has maintained that Time Warner is on the right path. After the Lazard report was released, Parsons sent a letter to shareholders asserting that the company was delivering value to investors.
    Time Warner said yesterday that a different capital and corporate structure may be appropriate for Time Warner Cable. It also said it would continue to review the Lazard report and consult with Icahn on its proposals.

    Though his initiative came up short, Icahn has no intention of keeping his advice to himself. “I remain committed to the tenets of the Lazard report and hope to be able to convince Dick [Parsons], in our future meetings, to accept a number of its recommendations,” Icahn said in his statement.

    The agreement yesterday gives Icahn a face-saving departure from his high-profile battle with the company. “We are very pleased to have reached an understanding with Mr. Icahn,” Time Warner’s chairman and chief executive Richard D. Parsons, said in a written statement. “We appreciate his role as a significant shareholder as well as his constructive recommendations.”

  • American TV Networks come together for a common cause

    American TV Networks come together for a common cause

    It’s all about the power of television. The four blind mice of American TV – ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC – are not scrapping with each other for morsels of the US advertising pie; rather they are getting together for a good cause this Friday: raising money for victims of the World Trade Centre and Pentagon terrorist blowups. The four networks are to jointly produce and simulcast a two-hour show called ‘America: A Tribute to Heroes’ from 9 pm to 11 pm (US Eastern Time; 6:30 am IST, Saturday).

    With no ads, the programme will run simultaneously from New York and Los Angeles with the backing of Hollywood’s most influential people like talent agent Ari Emanuel, music biz mover and shaker Jimmy Lovine and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. Production is in the able hands of Joel Gallin, who is behind such events such as the MTV Music Awards, though network executives are not claiming that they will come up with a gee-whiz event as it has been put together at a very short notice.

     

    Several acts are supposed to turn up and do a gig. Among those who are expected to figure include: country music group Dixie Chicks, Bon Jovi, singers Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen, comic man Jim Carrey (The Truman Show), Hollywood hunk Tom Cruise (Mission Impossible), America’s Sweetheart Julia Roberts, Amy Brennenman, George Clooney, Sheryl Crow, Cameron Diaz, Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, Calista Flockhart, Dennis Franz, Kelsey Grammer, Tom Hanks, Faith Hill, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys, Conan O’Brien, Tom Petty, Ray Romano, Paul Simon, Will Smith, Sela Ward, Robin Williams, Stevie Wonder and Neil Young. Other names are likely to mark their presence at the event.

     

    The four networks have offered the program to WB Television Network and UPN Network as well as to cable channels. Even sports channel ESPN is doing its best to rearrange its program schedule to accommodate the show. Not wanting to lag behind the two largest radio broadcasters, Clear Channel Communications and CBS-owned Infinity Broadcasting Corp. are also trying to carry the program live on their stations.

    The aim of ‘America: A Tribute to Heroes’ is to unite a nation and the whole world reeling from terrorist shock through the healing power of music. It also seeks to salute the selfless courage and soaring spirit of Americans despite the recent tragedies. Production costs will be met by the entertainment divisions of the networks. The show will be telecast live on the Internet.

    It is not yet clear whether the networks will set up their own relief outfits or if they will give funds to existing groups. Viewers wanting to give money will be informed how they can contribute during the course of the show.

    This effort on the part of the networks is to be lauded: they are losing between $30 million and $40 million in terms of advertising revenues every day because of the continuos coverage of the relief and rescue operations in New York and the Pentagon and cancellation of their money raking shows. NBC for example has stopped production for this week for its late night talk shows hosted by Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien.

    In India, the show will likely air on CNBC and Star World, both of which have been carrying programming blocks of NBC and Fox News.