Ted Turner, who is quitting as AOL Time Warner Inc vice chairman, is accelerating the sale of his stock in the world's largest media company.
Turner, the largest individual shareholder at New York-based AOL Time Warner, said Friday that he sold US$50 million of stock outside of a prearranged trading program he established in May.
The program called for Turner to sell US$5 million worth of AOL Time Warner stock each month.
The founder of Cable News Network sold his media business to Time Warner Inc in 1996 for US$6.2 billion in stock. When America Online Inc acquired Time Warner in 2001, he became vice chairman of the combined company. Two days after Turner said last month he would resign, he sold 1.3 million shares at US$11.37 to US$11.82 each.
He also sold 450,000 shares on Tuesday, possibly his prearranged allotment for the month.
``If he continues at this pace, it would lead all rational people to question whether he has concerns about the business of AOL Time Warner, or if his sales reflect his own personal financial situation,'' said Raymond James & Associates Inc analyst Phil Leigh, who rates AOL Time Warner shares "hold."
According to the schedule Turner had established, his next sale was due in March.
Maura Donlan, a spokeswoman for Turner Enterprises, said last month that the 1.3 million shares represented about three months of sales under the trading program. Turner had refrained from selling stock from November through most of January because the company was reviewing its financial statements and was being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department, Donlan said.
Turner, who said he planned to step down at AOL Time Warner's annual meeting in May, has been a critic of some members of the company's management. He has blamed Stephen Case, who last month said he would resign in May as the company's chairman, and former CEO Gerald Levin for the decline in AOL Time Warner stock.
Shares of the combined AOL Time Warner have fallen 77 percent since the merger. The company last month posted a 2002 net loss of US$98.7 billion, the largest in US history.
AOL Time Warner shares rose US$0.36 on Friday, or 3.6 percent, to US$10.51 each in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have fallen 62 percent in the past year.
Brenda Karickhoff, an associate general counsel at AOL Time Warner, confirmed that the sales reported by Turner today were outside his prearranged plan. Donlan had no immediate comment on the reason for the additional sales.
The media veteran filed a Form 4 with the SEC Friday disclosing the sale of 5 million shares at US$10.10 to US$10.50 each.
In October 2000, new SEC rules took effect that permitted corporate insiders such as Turner to plan stock sales in advance.
Under the rule, executives could sell stock throughout the year without fear of breaking insider-trading laws, as long as they had no inside information at the time the plan was established.
Turner established such a program on May 6, 2002, and since that time, almost all of his trading has been conducted under the prearranged plan. The existence of this plan doesn't bar him from selling additional shares, according to one expert.
"What the rule does is allow you to commit to a sales program or a purchase program in advance and then make the transactions automatically," said Peter Romeo, a securities attorney with Hogan & Hartson. "That doesn't mean you are precluded from making other trades so long as you don't have inside information when you engage in those trades."
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
Protectionism: US trade chief Katherine Tai said the hikes would help to counter unfair trade practices from China, while boosting domestic clean energy investments US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) defended stiff tariff hikes against countries such as China, saying that paired with investment, they were a “legitimate and constructive” tool for reinvigorating domestic industries. Tai’s comments come a week after sharp tariff increases on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs), EV batteries and solar cells took effect — with levies down the line on other products also recently finalized. The latest moves targeting US$18 billion in Chinese goods come weeks before next month’s US presidential election, with Democrats and Republicans pushing a hard line on China as competition between Washington and Beijing intensifies. In an interview on Thursday
RSS