Richard Parsons, former Time Warner CEO, dies at age 76

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Richard Parsons, former Time Warner CEO, dies at age 76

Published Thu, Dec 26 20244:54 PM EST | Updated 13 Min Ago
Marty Steinberg
@MartyCNBC1

Key Points
• Richard Parsons helped Time Warner divorce from AOL after what was considered one of the worst takeovers in history.
• He was also chairman of Citigroup, helping to stabilize the banking giant in the wake of the financial crisis, and served as interim CEO of the Los Angeles Clippers.
• Parsons later came out of retirement to briefly serve as CBS’ chairman.


Richard ‘Dick’ Parsons
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Richard Parsons, who helped Time Warner divorce from AOL after what was considered one of the worst takeovers in history, has died. He was 76. ... His death was confirmed by Lazard, where he was a longtime board member.

Parsons became CEO of AOL Time Warner in 2002, replacing Gerald Levin, who stepped aside two years after the media giant’s disastrous $165 billion merger with the upstart internet company. ... As CEO and later chairman, he led Time Warner’s turnaround, dropping “AOL” from the corporation’s name and shrinking the company’s $30 billion in debt to $16.8 billion by selling Warner Music and other properties.

“The merger did not work out quite the way many of us expected. The internet bubble burst and we had to fix the leaks,” Parsons told The Independent in 2004. “It was not as monumental a task as many people thought, as the fundamental businesses of the old Time Warner — like publishing, the cable networks and movies — was running well.”

He said that after the merger, AOL’s business had collapsed and Warner Music Group was declining, along with the entire music industry. “So we sold our music business, as well as other nonstrategic assets, to strengthen our balance sheet and put in new management.” ... Parsons stepped down from Time Warner in 2007.

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