Parsons has been the Citi board's lead director and chairman of its nomination and governance committee. Effective February 23 he will take over as the chairman of Citi's board. Bischoff, who has been with Citi as a banker since 2000, will not stand for reelection to the board.

Regulators are looking to put some spine into Citi's board. Parsons, whose mission will be to get new board members who bring "strong, proven business judgment and financial and banking sector expertise" is likely to witness the departure of former AT&T (NYSE: T) chairman, C. Michael Armstrong. Armstrong seems to have missed some of Citi's financial cancer as head of the board's risk and audit committee between 2004 and 2008.

Parsons move can't hurt, but it feels like the cows got out of the barn two years ago. I hope he can help boost the stock.

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.

Parsons in; Bischoff out as Citi chairman originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It looks like the chairman of the board at Citigroup (NYSE: C) is about to lose his position. It is a shame. He was doing such a good job. The bank's stock yesterday fell below $10 for the first time in over a decade.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "The board of Citigroup Inc. is growing increasingly dissatisfied with the financial giant's performance, and some directors are considering replacing Sir Win Bischoff as chairman." The lead candidate to take the job is former Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) chief Richard Parsons.

While the board-level change is not a sure thing, the revolt among directors seems to be aimed in the wrong direction. Vikram Pandit, who was made CEO a year ago, has effectively ruined any turnaround at the company by being slow to sell-off under-performing assets and cut expenses. The bank's shares performance has trailed that of every one of its peers.

Citi is like most large companies. The non-executive chairman has very little to do with running the company day-to-day. Firing a big company CEO after only twelve months on the jobs is unusual, but Citi's performance is so dismal that dumping the real culprit, Pandit, is a better idea than attacking the problem at the board level.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Firing Citigroup's chairman is the wrong move originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 13 Nov 2008 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TWX Chairman Parsons says likely to step down; Next job NYC mayor? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 16 May 2008 12:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading LiveBlogging: Time Warner (TWX) conference call

LiveBlogging: Time Warner (TWX) conference call originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

CNBC's David Faber reported yesterday about the potential break-up of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) and had some interesting detail about just how it might play out.

Honestly break up is really the most sensible path for Time Warner since Wall Street is clearly not embracing the media conglomerate model right now. TWX could make a case that its diversification provides safety if the economy softens further, but investors aren't buying it. So far today, the stock is at $17.80, losing another 1%.

Here are a few points from Faber's report:

Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC): Now a portion of Time Warner's stake trades separately. But the mother ship could spin off 85% of the unit and offer TWX shareholders an opportunity to exchange some of their shares for Time Warner Cable shares.

Continue reading Is Time Warner break-up plan gaining momentum as stock stumbles?

Is Time Warner break-up plan gaining momentum as stock stumbles? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Financial Times on Sunday had an article discussing why parts of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), including at the AOL and cable operations of Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), were slowing down.

The tone of the article was mostly negative (and the stock is down so far today -- it's currently at $18.26, down 3 cents). It discusses the slower growth in search, the lowered expectations inside AOL, and the slower cable growth. The article also points out the negative sentiment that may be building in shareholders who have seen a 17% drop this year in the share price, and also an analyst call pointing to lower target price expectations from Sanford Bernstein. Lastly, it explains that the October review is looming for the company at the next board meeting and how if the current slump continues, there will be pressure on them to push for changes.

I have written before how all of these developments and the need to please shareholders is likely to result in AOL becoming at least part of its own unit similar to what the company did with its cable operations.

If I were making odds in Vegas, odds would be that an announcement for an AOL tracking stock will be made at the end of 2007 to very early in 2008. That would allow Time Warner to maintain control and would give the company a non-cash currency so it could start buying up strategic online properties. Last week I showed how the comScore data was looking strong for the company's advertising.com unit, so perhaps the company will be looking for more integrations in that realm.

Jon Ogg is partner in 24/7 Wall St.; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Financial Times discusses issues at Time Warner (TWX) & AOL originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 20 Aug 2007 14:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Time Warner gets another "Happy Feet" bump originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 11 Jan 2007 11:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Investment strategist and TV host Jim Cramer said on his show on Thursday that he got a call from an employee of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) and was asked about exercising options in the next 90 days.....

Cramer said NO WAY! He's been behind Parsons for four and and a half points and you have got to stick with it, he said.

Cramer said everything is going well and thinks the stock will probably go to $28 or $30. He even noted that this is one of his favorite stocks.

It sounds like everyone at Time Warner is going to be saying Boo-Ya! from now on.

Cramer sticks with Time Warner (TWX) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 22 Dec 2006 18:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Time Warner still looking for Internet ad and content properties and deals originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 06 Dec 2006 20:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cramer still VERY positive on Time Warner, says Parsons performing miracles originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 01 Nov 2006 18:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Overview: All in all the questions were not really that tough and what each analyst was going after seemed responded to quite well and quite rapidly. The company wouldn't get an A+ and wouldn't get a C on a conference call report card if there was such a thing. But a "B+" to an "A" would be handed out.

All in all, the questions were on individual metrics more than the overall company strategy. The answers certainly didn't indicate Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) has any plans to break up the company beyond what managers have already said.
Please pardon any misspelled names and gaps in who said what. Comments are paraphrased, rather than exact quotes.

Q&A FOR THE QUARTER:

Continue reading Liveblogging the TWX conference call: Q&A session

Liveblogging the TWX conference call: Q&A session originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 01 Nov 2006 09:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Live Blogging: Dick Parsons comments on the TWX quarter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 01 Nov 2006 08:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Earnings for Time Warner Inc., (NYSE: TWX) are out this morning. After some items were removed, the media giant posted $0.19 earnings per share vs $0.20 estimates. Revenues were up 7% to $10.91 billion -- better than the $11.07 billion estimated.

The company posted net income of $0.57 billion after certain items, and $0.34 EPS before the adjustments took it down to the $0.19 level. Adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization climbed 16% to $2.85 billion. The company said some of the growth was offset by a decline in the filmed entertainment unit.

TWX continues to project growth at a rate in the "low double-digits" for operating income before depreciation and amortization.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dick Parsons said: "Time Warner continues to build momentum and deliver value for our shareholders. This quarter's results position the company to meet all of our full-year financial objectives."

Continue reading Time Warner earnings a tad short after adjustments

Time Warner earnings a tad short after adjustments originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 01 Nov 2006 07:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Maybe NTLI isn't really a Time Warner target? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) fell victim today to an analyst downgrade from J.P. Morgan. The analyst went from an "overweight" to a "neutral" rating and offered a fair value price range of $15.70 to $18.89. The stock closed down 2%, or $0.39, at $18.20.

For longer-term investors, this is actually good news, even if it is hard hearing that a 2% drop is "good" for you. The stock had been getting consistent volume increases and had been rising steadily until late in the day yesterday. It was showing some strong over-bought readings for the chartists/technicians.

Today the company issued some overall feel-good comments from Chairman & CEO Dick Parsons on CNBC's Power Lunch segment about the overall operations and the economy, although there were not any formal statements made that you could really apply to any single unit.

Yesterday saw over 59 million shares traded and the stock closed down $0.01 on the day. Today we had the stock close down $0.39, or 2% at $18.20 on 48.5 million shares. That translates to a classic example of a breather on what is actually somewhat light relative trading volume for the stock during a week where volume has been so much higher. The volume was 59.7 million, 65.8 million, and 56.2 million for the last three days in reverse order.

TWX shares closed at $17.73 last Friday, so this drop today does not reflect a classical omen of bad things to come. This 48.5 million shares was double the average of the last three months, but far under the last three days.

The options volume has been very tame the last two days. You wouldn't have even known there was an options market if you looked at the contract volumes of the October and November expirations. One person is probably a little happy about the drop, and that would be whoever bought those 30,000+ Jan 07 $17.50 puts yesterday.

Continue reading TWX took a breather today, but that's not all bad

TWX took a breather today, but that's not all bad originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) closed today at $17.73, up 24 cents, or 1.37%, on 21,296,000 shares traded. It was one of the highest closes for TWX in recent memory, and the highest close since February 17, 2006.

Some key events of the past week:

- Presentations still indicate that the Time Warner Cable separation after the Adelphia acquisition is still on track.

- The company set its earnings date for Wednesday, November 1, 2006. Oddly enough, traders rallied the stock Friday after they set the date as that often creates a "maybe that means there is no warning since they didn't give us a warning" mentality among traders.

- TWX and its affiliates sold over 39 million shares of Time Warner Telecom (TWTC) this week, a much higher number of shares after it had been telegraphed last week.

Continue reading Weekly Wrap for Time Warner (TWX)

Weekly Wrap for Time Warner (TWX) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 22 Sep 2006 20:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dick Parsons for New York City mayor? A few weeks ago, I picked out an interesting tidbit in a story on why Parsons should be fired: Gramercy Capital Management's Joan Lappin dribbled the tantalizing rumor that the Time Warner CEO was considering a run for mayor when Michael Bloomberg's term is up in 2009.

Today's New York Magazine says "it's all but official." Parsons will run, with some insiders even saying he'll hand over the CEO position to Bewkes (Lappin said this, too) before his current contract ends in 2008. Naturally Parsons has said he'll fulfill his contract, but not opined on the mayoral run.

Frank Barnako of MarketWatch says this must be why Carl Icahn is buying up shares of Time Warner, while DealBreaker.com says Parsons entrance into the race "is not entirely unwelcome" and hints that the I-banking elite might vote for him. Would you?

Dick Parsons for NY mayor -- would you vote for him? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 Aug 2006 06:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Every time we write a critical post about Time Warner or Microsoft, or expose a negative fact, rumor or analysis, the refrain renews: fire the CEO! Dick Parsons, that lucky guy, gets the brunt of our readers' anger. He's screwing up Time Warner, you've told us time and time again, he should go. So say you of Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, he of the explosive personality, sweaty armpits, and billions in inexplicable operating expenses. Sometimes it's Jeff Immelt of GE, or even well-loved figures like Meg Whitman of eBay.

But usually, it's Dick. Today is no different. With 2nd quarter earnings coming out next Wednesday, and everyone wondering about the company's plans with its AOL unit, Joan Lappin from Gramercy Capital Management demands in the pages of Fortune, "Save Time Warner, Fire Parsons."

It's nothing new, but it's worth evaluating her reasons for the radical battle cry. She argues that Parsons is all about politics (in fact, he's rumored to be angling for a 2009 run for New York City mayor), a skill that helped him avoid perishing in the "shark tank" that has been Time Warner's boardroom for the past decade and earned him credit as being a "Teflon Don," but has failed miserably to maintain Time Warner's legacy as a creative, entrepreneurial culture where good managers were rewarded "generous financial incentives for producing solid earnings growth." Fire Parsons, she says, and maybe that creative culture can be revived.

I honor her passion, and agree that the creative, entrepreneurial company always wins over the political shark tank. But who, Joan, is positioned to take the helm from him? That question must be answered before anyone brings out a block and starts chopping.

Should Dick Parsons be fired? (or Steve Ballmer or Jeff Immelt or ...) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 25 Jul 2006 20:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

What do TWX and Eminem have in common? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 24 May 2006 13:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.