No Albrecht Questions at Time Warner Meeting
Parsons Emphasizes Digital Age, Praises AOL
By Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 5/18/2007 10:22:00 AM MT
Time Warner’s annual shareholders’ meeting Friday in Burbank, Calif., was relatively uneventful, with none of the expected questions from stockholders regarding former HBO chairman Chris Albrecht’s recent legal problems and his subsequent resignation.
Chairman and CEO Richard Parsons kicked off the meeting, held at Time Warner’s Warner Bros. Studios, assuring shareholders that the company continues to adhere to its strategy of creating, aggregating and distributing content and focusing on the right businesses.
Parsons said Time Warner also was working to move all of its businesses into the digital age, praising its AOL division’s executives for what he called a smooth transition from its subscription-based model to one focused more on advertising.
He said that although some of Time Warner’s properties could be characterized as old media, they, too, can live in a digital world.
“We’re not going to make the mistake that the railroads made at the turn of the last century, when they thought they were in the railroad business as opposed to the transportation business,” Parsons said. “We are in the content-creation business, and we convey it to people by whatever means and across whatever platform we can.”
Two shareholder proposals that will give stockholders more power were approved at the meeting. About 79% of votes cast were in favor of a measure that would adopt a simple majority vote on company matters, and about 64% of votes cast were in favor of a measure allowing holders of 10%-25% of outstanding stock the ability to call special shareholders’ meetings.
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