NEW YORK - Ted Turner, the mercurial media visionary who founded CNN, said Friday that he wouldn't seek re-election to the board of Time Warner. Turner, who is 67, became a director of Time Warner in 1996 when the media conglomerate bought his cable networks company Turner Broadcasting Systems. He long held a prominent role in guiding Time Warner's affairs, but in recent years complained of being...
In a victory for Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Richard Parsons, dissident investor Carl Icahn is abandoning his fight for control of the world's largest entertainment company. Icahn has decided against his previous plan of nominating a full slate of directors to replace Time Warner's 14-member board, people with knowledge of the situation said. And the billionaire could give up the proxy fight...
The union representing many Knight Ridder Inc. employees has teamed up with a private equity firm in a bid to purchase nine of the publishing company's 32 daily newspapers, including the San Jose Mercury News and the Monterey Herald. The Newspaper Guild-Communication Workers of America said it has entered into a partnership with the Yucaipa Cos., chaired by businessman Ron Burkle, as a step toward...
WASHINGTON, Feb 16 (Reuters) - U.S. communications regulators should quickly relax ownership restrictions on the radio and broadcast television industry, Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on communications, said on Thursday. Upton, a Michigan Republican, cited the proliferation of broadcast stations, cable, satellite television and radio and the Internet as...
The giants of the Internet have been hauled up and accused of colluding with China's secret police and censors to wield a "cyber sledgehammer of repression". At a hearing of the US House international relations subcommittee, Yahoo, Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Google were repeatedly accused of collusion with an oppressive regime, and of selling out the principles of democracy and free speech for...
LONDON - The word on the street is that a revival of the dot com boom is upon us. If true, then as some entrepreneurs dither at reliving the trauma of a costly cyber-dream, the fortunate few like Rupert Murdoch can hedge their bets, thanks to financial cushions like News Corp. Just as the billionaire chief executive has been touting his push into digital media with a clutch of new Web-based...
The US Congress has condemned major IT firms for helping China censor the internet. In China, web forums are carrying angry comments. Members of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus said that Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Yahoo were putting profits before the principle of free speech. "With all their power and influence, wealth and high visibility, they neglected to commit to the kind of positive...
The newspaper publisher Knight Ridder, which is seeking a buyer under pressure from its largest shareholders, reported a 22 percent decline in fourth-quarter earnings yesterday from a year ago. The company, which is based in San Jose, Calif., earned $83.3 million, or $1.24 a share, in the three months ended Dec. 25, down from $107.2 million, or $1.38 a share, a year earlier. The latest results...
Yahoo recent quarterly results disappointed investors when their net income only rose 32% over a year ago. The market punished their stock, taking billions off their market cap. Will the same thing happen to Google? I'm no Jim Cramer, but I do know a few things about the two ad platforms that generate the bulk of each company's profits. Here are a few key differences I've noticed that influence...
Google's profit surged 82% and sales surged in the fourth quarter as the Internet search giant continued to gain from advertisers shifting their spending online from traditional media. The leading search engine company posted net income of $372.2 million, or $1.22 a share, compared with $204.1 million, or 71 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue was $1.92 billion, up from $1.03...
