AOL Time Warner loses $100 Billion Dollars yet people keep silent

On January 29th, AOL Time Warner Inc. reported a $98.2 billion loss for 2002, the biggest annual loss ever by a U.S. corporation and a total largely attributable to a steep drop in the value of once highflying America Online.

Yet, there is no real coverage.

Where are the Enron-like stories? Why isn't anyone demanding Ted be in handcuffs?

I don't see Michael Moore screaming about this and I know why. CNN won't let him promote his book and he won't get to talk about "big ol' oil man Bush and his daddy".

Really shows how many meglomaniacs and prima donnas there are in this society.

 

I bet the people responsible for the AOL Time Warner's fiscal woes were AOL users.

 

I will eat their stock...

...show them who to give crap-tastic service too...

But how can they loose so much money?! It is almost impossible to do it.I mean come on,They apparently have the largest amout of subscribers.Well thats what teh T.V. tells me, so it must be true!

Hell I am one of them. I hope they dont go under. *knick on wood*
That will screw our economy big time.

 

Because there is a difference between losing money due to a failing economy and losing money because of shady book keeping.

 

Doesn't Colin Powell's son work for TWAOL..no, my bad, right, he just rubber stamped the merger.

 

Where are the Enron-like stories? Why isn't anyone demanding Ted be in handcuffs?

After the economic woes of the past year, you won't see that type of thing. The so called 'heroes'...the 'whistleblowers' who reported the fraud at companies like Enron actually ended up doing more harm than good. They destroyed consumer confidence in the Dow Jones. That's why they are keeping this on the dl.

 

There's no stories because AOLTW owns every station that might report it.

I'm sure they have $100 Billion to spare, unfortunately.

 

It wasn't really a merger, it was AOHELL buying out Time Warner.

 

This buy-out was the worst idea in corporate history and its showing through now. Not really much else to say besides that.

 

$98.2 billion in a year...

$269 million a day...

$11 million an hour...

$187 thousand a minute...

$3000 a second.


AOL's new motto:

"Money - It's so easy to lose, no wonder we're number one."

 

I knew from day one this merger wouldn't work. The only sector of AOLTW that's making money is the film...what with LOTR, HP, etc.

And will continue to do so with Matrix sequels, T3 and ROTK.

But AOL...different story.

 

Some of the losses are mainly due to the merger (which happened awhile ago, AOL-TW idiots), and also because AOL simply underestimated the appeal of broadband.

It baffles me how a company can lose 98 Million that wasn't there's to spend in the first place. They should've fired many employees the minute they found out the ship was sinking.

 

"Why isn't anyone demanding Ted be in handcuffs?"

Ted Turner has almost nothing to do with the running of AOL/Time Warner. Since the buyout, he's basically been reduced to a figurehead. I hear he's looking to buy back the Braves and some of his TV networks, but he still has no say in the direction of AOL/TW.

Amazing.

 

Look, folks, this is silly. How can AOL/TimeWarner "lose" $100,000,000,000? I'm sure it's just misplaced. If I were in charge of things, before I just went and told the media that I'd "lost" that much money, I'd have looked around first.

I mean, where did AOL/TimeWarner have the $100,000,000,000 last? Were they at home? In the car? At a restaurant?

What pants were AOL/TimeWarner wearing when they lost the money? Did they go through all the pockets? Were they wearing a jacket? I'd check those pockets, too.

This is precisely why I carry a debit card rather than cash.

 

They could probably find a couple billion in the couch cusions.

And buttons for some reason.

 

No one is going to demand hand-cufffed AOL Time Warner execs. We're in a recession and besides as some have already said the loss is from the merger and the fact that after the merger AOL had a HUGE slump in business.

Even though in a period of like 18 months they had a wipe out of more than $100 billion in market value, they're already "fixing" it... at least Parsons is trying to, we'll see how well that goes. Heh! Funny thing is Gerald Levin, Robert Pittman, and Steve Case all quit leaving Parsons to fix the company all by his lonesome.

Ha ha ha! I hope Parsons has fun with his Ebitda and his $26 billion debt load.

 

Considering how many meetings these suit-and-tie-clad drones attend every day, you'd think someone would have brought this up before it got to this point:

Executive One: So, how are we doing?

Executive Two: Sir, we're in the red about $50,000,000,000.

Executive One: Hmmm, maybe we should switch to Plan B.

 

$100 billion dollars isn't chump change even for a mega conglomerate like AOL/Time Warner. If I am recalling my facts correctly, that's over 1/4 of the company's total value, but there were warning signs. Both Ted Turner and Steve Jobs announcing that they were stepping down should have been indicators that something rotten was afoot, but those who stay on board thinking things have to get better may be in for some serious disappointment. There is a long hard road ahead and losses in profits are the least of the problems.

See, the merger is still under investgation by the federal government for possible violations of anti-trust laws. While not likely, the government may break up the merger or heavily fine the company. On top of this, AOL is under investigation for possible accounting fraud from before the merger. If this pans out to be true, then you guessed it.. More fines and lots of jail time for AOL executives along with their stock plummeting into penny a share territory.

The media may not cover it or call for blood, but that will likely not change the doomed fate of these two companies. All I have left to say is:

"You've got bankruptcy!"

EDIT: And oh yeah.. Are we finally calling this a recession now?.. It's about damn time isn't it!? I coulda' told these analysts this crap two years ago when they were calling it "adjusting". In fact, I will go as far as saying we are moving towards a depression. I want to be wrong but nothing has pointed against that yet.

 

AOL sold its stake in General Motors, for about $800 million.

Parsons has stated he is going to cut debt by $20 billion by 2004 and that this year is a "reset year".

I just have to laugh.

Edit: Mis-spelling

 

For the record, Ted Turner resigned from AOL the day the estimates came out.

 

On January 29th, AOL Time Warner Inc. reported a $98.2 billion loss for 2002, the biggest annual loss ever by a U.S. corporation and a total largely attributable to a steep drop in the value of once highflying America Online.

I'd love to have that "nothing" ($1.8 billion).

I don't know why I bumped up the oldest non-sticky unlocked thread in this forum.

 

Well, I sure as hell won't keep silent over this (old) news.

PARTY!!!

 

everybody dance!

 

So...there should be a TV movie about AOL Time Warner, just like Enron, right?

 

Damn AOL!!!