There is a theme developing on Wall Street that allows the rats to escape the sinking ships while placing caretakers in charge who are willing to mutter along with the engines out and the rudders damaged. This is the case as we find that Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) has installed Richard Parsons as Chairman.

Several things come to mind here. First, Citigroup has clearly been rudderless for some time and it is ironic that Parsons, who filled the same role at BloggingStocks.com's mother-ship, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), would be tapped to do the same thing again. TWX stock has also been unimpressive the last five years and before that it only went down following the ill-timed merger with AOL.

Another issue with Parsons is that he is not known for radical or rapid decision making, and Citi is in need of change, and has been for a long time. Parsons has been on the board and could have acted long ago. Is this the guy that will lead a company and shareholders desperate for action to the promised land? It is a highly unlikely probability. Is he the guy that can mingle with the Washington and Wall Street elite to find the resources to keep the ship afloat? Perhaps.

It's pretty obvious -- but not certain -- that Citigroup (NYSE: C) will report a worse-than-anticipated fourth quarter loss. Otherwise, why would there be so much discussion about selling Smith Barney, replacing Citi's Chairman Win Bischoff with Dick Parsons, former Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Chairman, and maybe dumping current Citi CEO Vikram Pandit? The way the game is played, it looks better to be making changes prior to the announcement of bad numbers rather than after it.

But after losing $10 billion in the first three quarters of 2008, Citi appears poised to add not $2 billion but as much as $10 billion in losses to that total. Of course, the board is expressing confidence in Pandit's first year of leadership at Citi. He's been able to convince the government to cough up $45 billion in cash and guarantees on $269 billion of illiquid mortgage assets. And he might be able to sell Citi's share of Smith Barney to Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) for $2.5 billion in cash which would create a $6 billion after-tax gain.

The key threat for Pandit appears to be that Rubin -- who left Citi after a decade in which he took in $126 million as an advisor while Citi lost $164 billion in market value -- was a Pandit supporter. With Rubin gone, Parsons, who is Citi's lead director, has been weighing Pandit's future. The New York Times reports that Parsons has "met privately with several of the bank's top executives for lengthy discussions about their businesses, and in some cases, Pandit's management style."

If Citi announces a $20 billion loss, will it also announce Pandit's replacement?

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and is the author of You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing. He owns Citi shares and has no financial interest in the other securities mentioned.

Former Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) Chief Executive Richard Parsons is rumored to be under consideration to be the next Secretary of Commerce after New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson withdrew his name because of an ongoing investigation in his state.

Parsons, who tangled with billionaire Carl Icahn during the recent proxy fight, already is an economic adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. He would make a great spokesman for American business during the current economic crisis.

In fact, Parsons is probably more suited for the job than Richardson, a career politician. Parsons does have baggage, though. You can expect service on corporate boards such as Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) to come up during his confirmation hearings.

Parsons joined Time Warner's board in 1991 and became CEO in 2002 after the problematic $124 billion merger with AOL (the parent company of this blog), which the company is still recovering from today. He deserves some credit for patching up the situation and settling costly investor lawsuits.

Should Parsons join the administration, he will not be the only former Time Warner employee to do so. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the globe-trotting CNN medical correspondent, is slated to be Surgeon General.

AdAge has a report out today noting that Time Warner CEO, Jeffrey L. Bewkes, plans to lay off 75 or more people tomorrow. But this report says the cuts are coming primarily from the company's corporate offices. That would be much closer to home for the top brass there, so 75 of the 600 to 700 noted in the article would be a substantial signal that the company is making sacrifices top to bottom in a quest for shareholder rewards.

If this is the case, it would be coincidental with earnings, also scheduled for tomorrow morning. Bewkes still has time on his side to make his mark. Now that Carl Icahn isn't in the middle of the hornet's nest, the current shareholder base has become patient. A bear market trading pattern forces people to stop badgering CEOs so much, because relative performance gets harder and harder to prove.

This is Bewkes' first earnings report as head honcho there, but Dick Parsons was still in charge for most of this last quarter. Bewkes may go over a formal plan and he might not. Most likely the media conglomerate will outline a formal date that the actual plan will be announced.

Obviously, most of BloggingStocks' attention is probably going to pertain to Bewkes' forward plans for AOL. Many of the mega-merger watchers from last week think this puts added pressure on AOL, although that might not really be the case. Since that is opinion, I will hold off on going into details on that.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) shares closed down 2.7% today at $15.40. The 52-week trading range is $14.64 to $21.97. Stay tuned for earnings tomorrow.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) posted earnings per share of 29 cents after items, but on a normalized basis the company's earnings were 24 cents. Revenue was $11.68 billion. First Call estimates were for earnings of 24 cents on revenue of $11.36 billion.

As far as how this compares, it really seems like the results were better than expected. Adjusted Operating Income before Depreciation and Amortization climbed 15% to $3.2 billion, reflecting double-digit increases in the Cable, Filmed Entertainment and Publishing segments, as well as a gain at the Networks segment. This growth was offset partly by a decline at AOL. Operating Income was up 29% to $2.1 billion.

Time Warner continued its aggressive share buyback. As of November 6, 2007, the company has repurchased approximately 119 million shares for approximately $2.2 billion since its $5 billion program was announced on August 1. At existing prices, the company expects to complete at least half of the program by the time the time it reports its 2007 full-year and fourth-quarter results.

Shares of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) haven't done well this year. Have they been in Wall Street's dog house long enough?

Time Warner, down 18% this year, trades, at a multiple of 18. Disney, whose shares are little changed, is trading a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 17. News Corp., also little changed, is the most richly valued of the bunch with a forward p/e of 20. All three of them report earnings this week. To put it diplomatically, expectations are low. Disney is probably the most compelling value there because of strong brands and top-flight management.

Revenue at Time Warner is expected to be $1.41 billion, up 14.8% according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Earnings are expected to be 11 cents compared with 19 cents a year earlier. The stock rose today after the company announced that Jeff Bewkes would replace Richard Parsons as CEO starting next year. Don't expect any big changes at AOL, though. The strategy to turn around the Internet unit was developed by Bewkes. The company will come under pressure to divest AOL and other businesses including publishing. Earnings are due Wednesday.

Disney reports Thursday. Analysts aren't expecting much out of the Mouse House. Revenue is expected to inch up 2.2% to $8.98 billion. Earnings are expected at 41 cents versus 36 cents a year earlier. With the record-low dollar, the company's Theme Parks are dirt-cheap for foreign tourists. Earnings also should be helped by the "High School Musical" franchise and a solid performance by the ABC Television network.

There will be plenty of talk about the acquisition of Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ) on Thursday's News Corp. earnings conference call. There will also be discussion about the surging popularity of Facebook. Though so far the Fox Business Network has underwhelmed critics, Murdoch will no doubt put a positive spin on the channel's debut. Revenue for the quarter is expected to increase 9.6% to $6.48 billion. Earnings are pegged at 23 cents versus 19 cents a year earlier.

Richard Parsons is giving up his position as chief executive officer at Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) to be replaced on Jan. 1 by Jeff Bewkes, the current president. Parsons is stepping down, not because the job is done but because his job is done. He is no longer the person for the job and that has become apparent to everyone, including him. There is no angst, there is no acrimony -- he has done some things very well during difficult times, but it's time to move on.

There are those who would have you believe that this move should have come earlier, myself included. But Parsons and the board were not working on my timetable. Parsons will retain his position as chairman of the company. Depending on how quickly his replacement, TWX president Jeff Bewkes implements his ideas for change, Parsons may be leaving a company that does not much resemble the one he has been leading the last few years.

AOL has already changed a lot. We have witnessed AOL being removed from the company name after billions of dollars of write-downs. AOL was converted to an advertising model instead of being subscription-based. It established partnerships with many other companies including Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), which acquired a 5% stake for $1 billion and is now the primary search engine.

Time Warner Cable concluded its acquisition of Adelphia Cable and reorganized to form the independent Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and is struggling somewhat as the cable market changes with the telcos and satellite media providers joining in the competition for home users by bundling services.

Time Inc. has sold off some magazine titles, closed down others and is still trying to define where its future fortunes will be found.

There has been more than speculation that Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) is near the center of Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) radar screen, but perhaps AOL-Yahoo would be better fit. Maybe a deal for AOL will be more likely once Jeff Bewkes replaces Richard Parsons as chief executive of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX). (The Wall Street Journal reported today that Bewkes is likely to take over from CEO Dick Parsons as early as Jan. 1, 2008).

One reason Microsoft does not own Yahoo already is that Yahoo is expensive. Maybe Yahoo has another path to follow. Maybe Yahoo and Time Warner could help each other out. If Time Warner set AOL free to merge with Yahoo than their combined forces might be a better competitor for both Google (NASDAQ: GOOG)and Microsoft.

The current five year deal between AOL and Google made Google the seach engine for the site and since it forked over $1 billlion for 5% of the business, the valuation if it were independant would be $20 billlion. More importantly at the time it was reported that 10% of Googles revenue was generated through AOL. That certainly was incentive to get a deal done. I have seen no current data on this but if it is somewhere in the vicinty then a Yahoo/AOL combination would reduce Googles stranglehold on search and add it to the new company. It might represent as much as a 20% swing in traffic and revenue.

If Yahoo were to be acquired by Microsoft, it would become a part of what is now a very large conglomerate. One that should give some thought to it's own lethargy. Microsoft is losing money on numerous hardware ventures and might be better off refocusing on software, both online and in the business environment. Now that Parsons is stepping aside to let Bewkes lead pehaps there will be the energy and insight to make a move.

On an online video on TheStreet.com this morning, James Altucher, founder of Stockpickr.com, and Jim Cramer reviewed Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX). What was funny was that this brief two-minute discussion was filmed outdoors and had sort of a "Candid Camera" on-the-street feel. Plus, it was really made up of Cramer asking Altucher what he thought rather than the other way around.

Cramer was less enthusiastic on Time Warner than he had been in the past, but Altucher said at today's lower stock price, it is seems cheap. Altucher discussed the AOL ad growth model not being as great as originally hoped, but noted that AOL on a standalone basis could be worth $30 billion.

Cramer said Wall Street wasn't happy, but Altucher said the stock purchase by Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons last week was a solid vote. As far as the buyback, TWX bought back enough stock that it was like buying an entire AOL. On cable subscriber growth, it sounded a lot like Altucher thought there could be some organic subscriber growth left. To top it off, Altucher said $25 could be a target and that 2008 and 2009 could be great years.

We'll see if this comes to pass and if AOL turns into a standalone company. Recently I laid out a path that I think the company can take to make it a quasi-standalone company again. Frankly it would be ludicrous to pick this apart after such an ugly day in the market yesterday and with such a large gap down this morning.

The good news is that if you are into buying strong companies on weak days, Time Warner may be worth a look. It was down less than the market overall yesterday and shares are still above the post-earnings lows of last week.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

If you review the Liveblogging of the earnings conference call, CEO Richard Parsons did say he feels Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) shares are undervalued. In a Form-4 SEC filing after yesterday's close, it shows that Parson purchased $500,000 worth of shares with the earliest transaction date of August 3.

Richard Parsons bought 26,867.276 shares at $18.61 as part of a deferred compensation plan. While it's not quite the same as buying shares completely out of pocket in after-tax paycheck dollars for a total show of force or a call to arms, it is the next best thing -- it's certainly better than not buying shares at all. It is certainly better than a mere exercise and immediate sale of options.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

As previously noted this morning, Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) did post gains on an EPS that were slightly ahead of expectations on revenues that were a tad under the estimates from First Call. The new $5 billion share buyback plan was to replace the recently completed $20 Billion share buyback plan. The company also reaffirmed $1.07 as its EPS target for the conglomerate. Going into the conference call, shares are down about 3.2% to $18.64.

At the start of the conference call, CEO & Chairman Dick Parsons reaffirmed 2007 OIBDA guidance and is maintaining growth at projections AOL and is maintaining its leverage. It reaffirmed $1.07 EPS for 2007, or $0.95 outside of items. Parsons also stated the following:

Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC) is on track for objectives with more upside to come. The legacy footprint has growth and the Adelphia adds should grow. Cable will continue to be a growth generation for years to come.

Harry Potter has generated nearly $700 MILLION in worldwide sales already.

AOL is continuing to make progress for OIBDA growth, it also expects page view growth at AOL this year. This was the first quarter where page views grew, but there was a slowdown in ad growth as certain deals were winding down from the subscriber days. Email and search changes are building and increasing monetization. The team is satisfied with the results so far. Advertising is also seeing some shift to third party advertisers, but its advertising.com is seeing gains. The total AOL expectations are being stepped back from original projections that it will grow above the market rates [that is the first time this has been stated]. It has relaunched the AOL homepage in a new format and is in the process of new finance and other pages. It has spent over $500 million in acquisitions over the last 16 (or 18) months to build the AOL franchise.

Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) Dick Parsons commented earlier today about not getting out of publishing. Reuters is also reporting that the company is weighing its stakes in Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and in its AOL unit. A timeline has even been given for a potentially complete spin-off of Time Warner Cable, although that was indicated as a down the road decision, but none has yet been made.

In the past, Parsons had been leaning more to a "Keep AOL in the family" stance, but today's article is indicating that a consideration of a sale may come by the end of the year. Speculation has been more than abundant on this, especially given the impending "cash out" date at which Google has the option to essentially force Time Warner to either spin-off AOL or pay cash at the company's then-market value.

If the transition of AOL from a paid access service into a free content service has been as successful as the company claims, why then would it be reviewed for a potential sale? Follow the money. The $1 billion investment from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) for a 5% stake put in a $20 billion implied price tag on the unit. Is the unit worth more than that, or less? That's what the review will determine.

Instead of making a full sale, Time Warner may consider a partial spin-off of AOL back into a public company. This would give the online media company its own currency that is less dogged by the currently-unpopular conglomerate model so that it could make non-cash acquisitions. Time Warner should consider this route long before any outright sale, particularly considering that there would have to be additional goodwill write-downs for the added losses sustained. AOL now has many online ad operations that can openly compete with the other major companies in the field and the company has been making acquisitions.

This is a heated topic, that is for sure. It comes down to one's stance and opinion of the world. Wall Street has been force feeding the idea of separations to conglomerates (somewhat jokingly, just for the investment banking fees) to 'focus on core operations.' If companies divest too much they may end up just being smaller and more vulnerable without their old safety nets. No pun intended, but time and the markets will determine the outcome here.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) may yet take Carl Icahn's advice, according to Wall Street analysts.

Spencer Wang of Bear Stearns suggested yesterday that Time Warner was contemplating a "strategic event" for AOL, according to The New York Times's DealBook blog. UBS analyst Aryeh Burkhoff said that chances of an AOL sale are "high," the blog reported. Another possibility raised by analysts is a disposal of the Time Inc. magazine publishing business, Dealbook said.

Chief Executive Richard Parsons has called AOL a strategic asset. Companies, though, often say nice things about assets they plan to sell.

If AOL gets sold -- and it wouldn't shock me if it happened -- the usual suspects, Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI) would take a look at it. The Time business would probably fall into the hands of a private equity outfit.

All of this should have a familiar ring to it. Icahn made many of these same points during his recent crusade against Time Warner management.

One interesting question: What to call the company if Time is sold? I hope Parsons chooses a historic name highlighting the company's connection to Warner Bros. The world doesn't need yet another quasi-Latin sounding corporate name that no one understands.

Time Warner, Inc. (NYSE: TWX) CEO Richard Parsons was interviewed yesterday by Bloomberg. A detailed report of the interview can be found online. See, "Time Warner's Parsons Defends Decision to Keep AOL."

Parsons said he thinks the AOL unit could be worth some $26 billion over the next few years, which Parsons said may be conservative. Clearly, he believes in the business.

The article notes Time Warner is up 24% in the past three months because of investor encouragement and now has a market cap of $80.8 billion.

The article noted he doesn't want to sell the AOL unit as he did Warner Music. Parsons maintained an above-market ad growth for 2007, which is believed to be 25-30% overall, according to this. AOL's ad sales rose by 46 percent to $479 million in the third quarter, but total AOL revenue fell 2.8 percent to $1.98 billion as fees for Internet access declined.

Parsons defeated an effort by Icahn, 70, to break up the company in February, agreeing to boost a share buyback to $20 billion. Icahn spent about $110 million buying Time Warner stock in the third quarter.

There is a quote in the article that seems very true: ``I don't think Carl can ever be happy, but I still think he's happier than he was,'' Parsons said. ``He believes in the story.''

Time Warner is still planning an IPO of Time Warner Cable, which may be valued at about $40 billion.

As a long-term shareholder I appreciated news of the breakout of Time Warner Cable.

Now, I'm sure some clicking on this post thought that maybe a typo had escaped the editors, but I did mean "muddle" in the title of this post and not "middle". Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) has been encouraged for some time by shareholders, Carl Icahn, analysts, and various prognosticators and their like to give the market place a clear picture of the company's assets, company's goals, and to unlock their hidden value. This is value that many viewed as mired in a muddle of slow-moving, misdirected pieces aggregated in a conglomerate, lead by a board that just did not get it or get with it.

The news that TWX is going to release Time Warner Cable, which flies under the banner TWC, from its corporate bondage was welcomed by Wall Street and I'm sure Mr. Icahn. In fact this plan may be one of the things shared with Carl Icahn months ago that pacified him and his investor group from "throwing things" in the meetings with Chairman Richard Parsons. This and dramatic changes at the AOL division which are still ongoing.

Continued clarity of purpose and strong leadership will continue to bring value to TWX in the coming years so I will be holding on for a while.

There are many companies stuck in the muddle that should give some thought to this issue of clarity and give investors something they can understand while demonstrating they themselves (corporate executives) know what they are doing.

Other companies that I believe are stuck in the muddle include the following: Yahoo (YHOO); Sun Microsystems (SUNW) which is just plain stuck; General Electric (GE) which should at least tell us why they must continue to own NBC; Microsoft (MSFT) is less muddled lately and 2007 should be their opportunity to come clean; Citigroup (C) is going nowhere fast with lots of potential and nothing happening -- this is one that should definitely "speed up, slow down, or get the hell out of the way"; Ford (G) and General Motors (GM)... could they be more muddled up? Anybody want to add to the list of muddled companies? There are plenty.

Disclosure: In addition to owning TWX, I own Ford bonds bought at a discount to face value. I hold no other position long or short in any other stock mentioned.

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Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for Design and Research of an Architecture & Planning firm.