TIME WARNER’S share price is little changed from the $18 at which it sat when Richard Parsons was appointed chief executive. Because of this, Parsons’ five-and-a-half year tenure as boss of the American media giant is coming to an end.
Parsons, who is also chairman, is under increasing pressure to hand over the chief executive’s role to Jeff Bewkes, the group’s president. Institutional shareholders want Parsons’ twin positions split.
Parsons is credited for having kept the group going following Time Warner’s messy merger with AOL. He has also kept at bay Carl Icahn, the corporate raider who has been highly critical of the group’s performance during Parsons’ watch.
But shareholders are angry that he has retained the two roles since the enforced departure of AOL founder Steve Case as Time Warner chairman in 2003. They are also critical of his strategy.
Bewkes is his likely successor. Before becoming president, he was chairman of Time Warner’s Entertainment and Networks Group, overseeing Warner Bros, New Line Cinema and cable channels such as CNN, TNT and the Cartoon Network from July 2002 to 2006.
Parsons, 59, joined Time Warner’s board in 1991 and impressed Gerald Levin, the then chief executive who made him his number two in 1995. He took over in 2002 after Levin quit amid record losses resulting from the merger of Time Warner and AOL.
Parsons’ contract does not expire until May next year and it is possible the board may decide to let him continue as chairman for a short period while Bewkes settles in. But his days running the world’s largest provider of media content are numbered.
