After years of aggravation with the performance of Time Warner, the world’s largest media company, Ted Turner has decided that he will step down from the board.
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Even in his leaving Turner was somewhat cool in his evaluation of Dick Parsons, the Time Warner chief executive. His comments on Parsons were that he was, “doing a good job for the most part.” But added that in reference to his 1 per cent holdings that he “would hope” they would rise, a dig at the share price under Mr. Parsons.
Parsons was actually somewhat overenthusiastic in his tribute to Turner as he said that he was a “visionary leader who has made an extraordinary contribution to this company and, indeed, to the world at large.”
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Interestingly Turner had been asked to support Carl Icahn, the perpetual mutineer investor, who had attempted to get rid of Parsons in a campaign that buckled last week.
Dan Sabbagh writes this concerning Turner:
“The man known as the “mouth from the South” came to Time Warner after selling it Turner Broadcasting System, the business he founded in 1970, for $7.6 billion. Subsequent declines in the company’s share price cut the value of his holding by two thirds, putting him under pressure to meet a commitment to give $1 billion to the United Nations over a decade.”
“At the height of his powers in the mid-1990s Mr Turner controlled CNN and a cluster of television stations, owned the Atlanta Braves baseball team, and was married to Jane Fonda. Yet a decade later all three had been lost — the businesses sold to Time Warner and out of his personal control, and his marriage to Ms Fonda over.”
While he kept some power as evidenced by his influence in getting rid of Steve Case and Gerald Levin, who were chairman and chief executive of the company, it was his last hurrah concerning his corporate power. Things had been slowly slipping form his hands over a period of years until he now is pretty much going to concentrate on the philanthropy side of his interests.
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