Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard Parsons said the media company's board will decide on the timing for Jeffrey Bewkes to succeed him.
``I'm in a transitional mode,'' Parsons, 59, told investors today at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. conference in New York. He has publicly supported Bewkes, the company's chief operating officer, as his successor.
As CEO, Bewkes will face pressure to wring more profit from the company's movie studio, cable, publishing and Internet divisions or shed some businesses, analysts say. Bewkes, 55, pushed changes in strategy at AOL that led the Internet to focus on advertisers instead of paid subscribers to boost revenue.
``He's had plenty of opportunity to be an insider and form his own conclusions and views about, `Do all of these assets make sense together?''' Heather Goodchild, an analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York, said before Parsons's presentation.
Bewkes was behind AOL's decision to offer e-mail and other Web services for free last year to lure users and advertisers. Sales at the Internet unit have fallen since America Online bought Time Warner in a transaction that led to record losses in 2002.
Time Warner shares, down 14 percent this year, rose 42 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $18.66 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
AOL
The AOL Internet unit may sell its U.S. access business, after selling the various parts of its European web access units, Parsons said today at the conference.
``The focus right now with AOL is, let's see what we can build,'' Parsons said. The unit has the potential to participate in the growth of Internet ads and more costs can be taken out of it, he said.
The division, which is planning to move its corporate headquarters to New York from Dulles, Virginia, is looking at setting up portals in 30 countries, Parsons said.
Time Warner doesn't plan to sell its Time Inc. publishing unit, Parsons said. Analysts including Vijay Jayant of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., have called for it to be separated or spun off as the unit attempts to go digital from print.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gillian Wee in New York at gwee3@bloomberg.net .
