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Stealing Time: Steve Case, Jerry Levin and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner
 
 
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Stealing Time: Steve Case, Jerry Levin and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner (Hardcover)

by Alec Klein (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster International (7 Jul 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0743247868
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743247863
  • Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.3 x 2.9 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 721,604 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description
When America Online bought Time Warner in 2000, it was not only the largest corporate merger in history but also the much vaunted marriage of new and old media. Questions began, however, on the day the merger was announced. The stock price started a long decline; and the Federal Trade Commission subjected the merger to intense scrutiny. Just two years later, once-triumphant AOL was under investigation by both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justic Department. One hundred billion dollars was lost in 2002, and four of the top executives resigned. This is how the deal of the century became an epic disaster.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Neophytes Rush in Where Angels Fear to Tread, 2 Jun 2004
By Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)      
Although I have read a lot about the AOL-Time Warner merger and its aftermath, the national financial press did not do full justice to the story. Stealing Time does, however, and I highly recommend the book to you.

Alec Klein has a particularly good vantage point, having covered AOL for two years for The Washington Post. In the course of that assignment, he discovered that AOL was using sleazy advertising sales practices and illegal accounting to "achieve" its earnings growth. Primary motives for these despicable practices were power hunger, greed and a desire to pump AOL stock while the merger was pending (it was an all-stock deal). When the book focuses on those parts of the story, Stealing Time is riveting reading.

The bulk of the book covers what Time Warner was thinking (apparently not very much) as the merger developed and was pursued through the regulators . . . and the very ugly aftermath while AOL collapsed and the absurdity of the "synergy" concepts were exposed as bankrupt.

The book is enlivened by many anecdote-rich episodes (such as Jeff Bewkes calling Steve Case out in an executive meeting) and detailed interviews with those involved.

You will also get many insights into why so many dot-coms failed. AOL was stripping those who needed its advertising of as much cash flow as possible through indefensible negotiating tactics.

The advertising sales practices described here rank with the accounting at Enron as the sleaziest business actions taken by a major company that I have read about. It's enough to make you want to cancel your AOL subscription! . . . if you still have one.

If I liked the book so much, why didn't I rate it at five stars? Well, I think the book should have focused more on AOL and less on the aftermath at Time Warner. The inevitable shuffling of the deck chairs among the soon-to-be-fired or -retired executives isn't all that interesting. Sure, Time Warner was abused by AOL. But watching all of the ugliness of the abuse didn't make the story any better.

As I finished the book, I realized that any time that a "big picture" CEO is looking for partners . . . that's a recipe for disaster. Avoid those stocks!

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4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, 6 Mar 2006
This review is from: Stealing Time: Steve Case, Jerry Levin and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner (Paperback)
Facinating story - and a very interesting read. The book is highly entertaining and gives a great insight into the history of AOL and the time up-to and after the merger. I liked the mini-bios of the main business people involved in the story - like Steve Case, Jerry Levin, Ted Turner etc
I can highly recommend.
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