time warner

Time Warner Inc. (AOL Time Warner Inc. between 2001 and 2003) is the world's largest media company with major Internet, publishing, film, telecommunications and television divisions. Though many Time Warner employees work at Time Warner Center, the company is officially headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, United States.

History

Time Warner was created through the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications on January 10, 1990. In 1996, the group merged with Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting System, making Mr. Turner the largest individual shareholder of the group, though not the single largest shareholder. A controversial 2000 merger of Time Warner and America Online faced opposition in part due to concerns over monopoly issues (vertical integration) and questions of valuation. Many analysts were apprehensive of the fact that AOL, a company that at that time was less than fifteen years old was accquiring a venerable american institution. The collapse of the late 1990s tech industry economic bubble somewhat validated their paranoia and greatly reduced the company's combined worth. In 2002, the AOL component was considered to be the weakest part of the company and on September 17, 2003, AOL Time Warner announced that it would change its name to Time Warner, and its ticker symbol from AOL back to the original TWX used by Time Warner prior to the merger. Following a series of poor results, immense goodwill writedowns and immense debt, a number of group assets have been recently closed or sold. The professional wrestling federation WCW was sold to competitor WWE. The Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers, and operating rights to Philips Arena were sold in mid-2003. The fifty percent share in the cable channel Comedy Central was sold to Viacom and AOL/Netscape's longrunning litigation against Microsoft was settled out of court.Warner Music Group, a music company, was sold to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman, Jr. in late 2003. In 2004 Time Warner announced that it was shutting down its CNNfn financial information channel and disposing of its share in Google. Since 2003, the Time Warner text logo appears in CamelCase form (ala RadioShack).

Businesses

The following enterprises are part of Time Warner:

CNN, a world wide news company as well as a cable news channel
HBO, Cinemax, Turner Classic Movies, cable movie channels
TBS Superstation, TNT, Cartoon Network, cable channels
The WB television network (co-owned with Tribune Company)
America Online and via its Web Properties Group:

CompuServe (Classic, 2000 and Basic), an Internet service provider
Mirabilis, makers of the ICQ instant messaging program
Mapquest, a WWW map and direction site
Netscape, a web portal and browser vendor, formerly leader of the Mozilla project
Nullsoft, a software development group best known for Winamp.

Time Warner Cable, a cable television company
TIME, a weekly news magazine
People, a weekly celebrity magazine
Sports Illustrated, a sports magazine
MAD magazine, a humor magazine
Fortune, Money Magazine, business and investing magazines
Warner Bros., a movie studio
New Line Cinema, a movie studio
Atlanta Braves, a Major League Baseball team
DC Comics, a comic book company
Rhino Entertainment, a specialty recording, home video, and production company
Turner Entertainment, production company largely responsible for the distribution of the classic MGM, RKO, and Warner Bros. film libraries

Time Warner also owns several other television channels and magazines, including CNN Headline News and Entertainment Weekly, as well as Time Life books and music. See external links below for a complete list.

Financials

Time Warner's market capitalization is US$84 billion (2004). When the AOL-Time Warner merger was announced in January 2000, the combined market capitalization was $280 billion. For fiscal year 2002 the company made a $99 billion income statement loss (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=TWX&annual) because of $100 billion in non-recurring charges.

Commercial Properties

Time Warner Inc. owns several large properties in New York City; certain buildings in the Rockefeller Center complex and adjacent office towers house its main offices; one of which houses a CNN news studio. In late 2003, Time Warner finished construction of a new twin-tower complex, designed to serve as additional office space, facing Columbus Circle on the southwestern edge of Central Park. Originally called the AOL Time Warner Center, the 755-foot, 55-floor mixed-use property was renamed Time Warner Center when the company itself was renamed.