- Paperback: 374 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; New edition edition (1 Feb 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060540354
- ISBN-13: 978-0060540357
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.4 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 972,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
"[A] delightfully scathing account of the AOL/Time Warner merger... "--Smart Money
Product Description
Every era has its merger; every era has its story. For the New Media age it was an even bigger disaster: the AOL-Time Warner deal.
At the time AOL and Time Warner were considered a matchless combination of old media content and new media distribution. But very soon after the deal was announced things started to go bad--and then from bad to worse. Less than four years after the deal was announced, every significant figure in the deal -save the politically astute Richard Parsons--has left the company, along with scores of others. Nearly a $100 billion was written off and a stock that once traded at $100 now trades near $10.
What happened? Where did it all go wrong? In this deeply sourced and deftly written book, Nina Munk gives us a window into the minds of two of the oddest men to ever run billion-dollar empires. Steve Case, the boy wonder who built AOL one free floppy disk at a time, was searching for a way out of the New Economy. Meanwhile Jerry Levin, who'd made his reputation as a visionary when he put HBO on satellite distribution, was searching for a monumental deal. These two men, more interested in their place in history than their personal fortunes, each thought they were out-smarting the other.
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First Sentence
BY ALL ACCOUNTS, HENRY ROBINSON LUCE WAS ENDOWED WITH moral certainty at birth. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
BY ALL ACCOUNTS, HENRY ROBINSON LUCE WAS ENDOWED WITH moral certainty at birth. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Having read Stealing Time by Alec Klein, I was sure that I didn't want to read another book about the AOL-Time Warner fiasco. But then I happened to see the cover of this book at the library and couldn't resist its delightful cover. And I'm glad that the cover drew me in.
Ms. Munk has written a delightful story of the world's worst large merger that features lots of texture about the key players (especially Gerry Levin) and is written in a simple, effective style. Her book has more balance than the Klein book which emphasizes the sales and accounting legerdemain at AOL.
One of the book's most engaging qualities is that it is filled with powerful and interesting quotes from the participants and the observers.
I have had the opportunity to observe Time Warner in the past as a consultant, and I was struck that Ms. Munk did well in capturing the management style of the company and its reclusive CEO, Mr. Levin.
I would have rated the book higher except that this report still leaves the central mystery of AOL-Time Warner unexplained . . . why didn't anyone at Time Warner or its advisors figure out that AOL's profit success was based on a three-card Monte game before the deal was announced? Either people were bought off or they were monumentally stupid. Getting to the bottom of that mystery will have to await yet another book on this subject, I'm afraid. Ms. Munk puts it down to Mr. Levin's "big-picture, don't-bother-me-with-the-details" mentality.
If you want smooth, easy reading that gets most of the facts right, this book is a good choice. I particularly commend this book to students who are learning about how to make (and more importantly, not to make) acquisitions. If you mainly want to know about the AOL shenanigans, I suggest Stealing Time instead.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
24 reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Novel business - Business novel
8 Jan 2004
Format:Hardcover
This was the biggest of them all. In the madness for tech stocks where millions rushed in to make a fast buck, as is the case with all such crazy manias starting with the legendary tulips , billions of dollars were generated out of thin air, virtually, and in the most recent decade , perhaps digitally. Suddenly, reality strikes, gravity starts acting and the rest is history. Sadly, history repeats itself.
This book is the story of AOL using virtual money to buy real assets. If the real story is interesting, Nina Munk has made it exciting. Grass on the other side is greener, the old saying goes. AOL wanted something real to latch on in its digital world while Time Warner was craving for digitization. A merger, would be a perfect marriage, as it appeared to the CEOs of the two companies. Three years since then, over $ 200 billion of stock valuations have evaporated back into where they belong - cyberspace. It is said that greed, optimism and herd mentality are the three drivers of capitalism . Need a better example ?
A repetition of these obvious facts is not what makes this book a good read. Nina Munk has diligently tracked the business histories of the companies involved, listed the key players and their biographies and then integrated this background into the main story of the merger and its problems.
Easy to read, and light on technical aspects. At the end, I personally feel that Time Warner in its new form has the capacity to come back. After all it is this true spirit of free enterprise that keeps America going. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Eye opener for small investors
7 Dec 2004
Format:Hardcover
Munk's book reads like a fast paced novel and is easy enough to understand. It has not received the publicity of books like 'Good to Great' although in many ways it provides fundamental information on how big business is really conducted- for the benefit of pushy and powerful owners, managers and special interests.
Read this book to get real insight into how compliant board members and clueless senior management can wreck your 401K account. If an insider like Ted Turner could lose $ 8 billion in a three year period, where does it leave Joe Blow who plans to retire on his stock market investments?
Munk's book surprised even a cynic like myself- how could 2 persons deceive and mislead so many professionals and investors and evaporate $ 200 billion in less than 3 years? If this story does not provoke actionable investigations into the effectivness of oversight and toothlessnes of the legal system (to protect investors), I am not sure what will. In this regard, it is a very valuable read.
Read this book to get real insight into how compliant board members and clueless senior management can wreck your 401K account. If an insider like Ted Turner could lose $ 8 billion in a three year period, where does it leave Joe Blow who plans to retire on his stock market investments?
Munk's book surprised even a cynic like myself- how could 2 persons deceive and mislead so many professionals and investors and evaporate $ 200 billion in less than 3 years? If this story does not provoke actionable investigations into the effectivness of oversight and toothlessnes of the legal system (to protect investors), I am not sure what will. In this regard, it is a very valuable read.
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Brace yourself for one long night of page-turning
7 Jan 2004
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
WOW- what a book. I'm not in business, but stumbled across this book and ended up reading it from cover to cover in one sitting. It really reads like a Greek tragedy; each character enters the story with certain fatal flaws and the end of the story is almost pre-destined. Hard to believe that it's non-fiction. There is a remarkable amount of research in this book- the author went to great lengths to interview what seems like hundreds of sources. Given that the AOL story is so "of" the late '90's, I think that this eloquent book will mark the time, much like Bright Lights, Big City marks the '80's. This book's going to be required reading form business students for years to come.
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