Oligopoly brief: Time-Warner
Time-Warner can be proud of no longer being the example of the worst merger ever - the 2000 deal between AOL and Time-Warner, a deal that has now been eclipsed in folly by the Daimler-Chrysler deal. You may remember that technically it was AOL, puffed up with the boom of the time, that bough Time-Warner and AOL execs who were, for a time, in charge. When AOL deflated, it threatened to bring the whole company down.
Indeed, over the past seven years Time-Warner has done a good job of shedding assets and minimizing the impact of slowly dying AOL (once incredibly enough the bigger of the two companies). In order to right the ship, Time-Warner (at first "AOL-Time-Warner") had to dump a lot of ballast overboard.
These included:
- Warner Music, sold to investors
- Time-Warner Book Group sold to French publisher Lagardere
- Sports teams and activities inclusing wrestling, pro hockey, pro baseball, and pro basketball
- Sold or dropped several cable channels, including its half share of Comedy Central, CCNfn, an turner South
The only real acquisition was part of the cable TV assets of Adelphia, shared with #1 rival Comcast. In addition, in 2006, Time-Warner jointly founded the CW network, based on a combination of also-ran networks UPN and Warner-owned WB.
Given all the sell-offs, especially of books and music, Time-Warner is no longer quite the wide-ranging media power it once was. On the other hand, it is now a profitable company, with a raise in profits of over 100% in 2006. It will be interesting to see whether and where a newly revived company will invest.
Time Wraner Assets, August 2007
| Asset Type |
Asset |
Description |
| Online |
AOL |
Software protal |
| |
Netscape |
Broswer |
| |
Moviefone |
Movie ticket sales |
| |
MapQuest |
Map generator |
| Film and television production |
Warner Bros. Pictures |
Movies |
| |
Castle Rock |
Movies |
| |
New Line |
Movies |
| |
Warner Brothers Animation |
Looney-Tunes, Hanna-Barbera |
| Cable TV |
Time-Warner Cable |
#2 US cable company |
| |
Home Box Office |
Pay entertainment channel |
| |
Cinemax |
Pay entertainment channel |
| |
CNN |
News channel |
| |
Cartoon Network |
Kid's channel |
| |
CW |
Joint venture with CBS |
| |
Court TV |
Legal channel |
| |
International TV holdings |
Including CNN International and CArtoon network |
| |
TNT and TBS |
Cable entertainment channels |
| Magazines |
US magazines |
Including Time, People, Fortune, Sporrts Illustrated and over 100 more |
| |
International magazines |
|
11:37:27 PM 
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