AOL Time Warner Inc chief executive officer Richard Parsons is considering a request from America Online executives to drop "AOL" from the corporate name, which may help the world's biggest media company shift attention away from its struggling Internet unit.
Jonathan Miller, chief executive of America Online, asked Parsons in the last few days to change the name, saying it is hurting the online unit's brand.
Miller, who was appointed last year to turn around America Online, said in an e-mail to employees the name change would likely bring new criticism about the online company's 2001 purchase of Time Warner Inc.
"There is no question this will provide the media yet another opportunity to write negatively about the merger of AOL and Time Warner," Miller said.
"But I want to emphasize that I initiated the dialogue with Dick Parsons about the name change -- no one has asked me to do this -- because it would be the right thing for our business," he said.
Executives who came to the company from Time Warner have also supported a name change, though for different reasons. They argue that it's the parent company that's being tarnished by the online unit's woes, which include subscriber losses and an accounting probe.
Since the purchase, the combined company's shares have declined 66 percent and Time Warner executives such as Parsons have wrested control of the company.
Board member and former chairman Stephen Case and former chief executive Gerald Levin didn't immediately return calls placed to their offices. Miller didn't return a call seeking further comment.
Parsons and the board may consider the name change when they meet next month, spokeswoman Mia Carbonell said.
Miller said in his e-mail that changing AOL Time Warner's name would insulate the online unit's brand from any bad publicity at the corporate parent.
"Since the merger in early 2001, the three letters AOL have ceased to stand for the Internet and the promise it entails, and instead have become the shorthand for the world's largest media company," Miller wrote in the e-mail.
"Any controversy or criticism involving the corporate entity has actually hit our consumer brand," Millar went on to say.
Some investors and executives have said the company should wait to change its name until the US Securities and Exchange Commission concludes its investigation, which would keep the new name free from taint. Others said a name change would follow management turnover and operational changes already underway.
Brand consultants said it makes sense for the company to make the change now rather than wait. The name change would help the company focus on Time Warner's traditional cable television, film and music operations, they said.
"Usually, the damage is done when the question's been raised," said John Allen, a senior partner at Lippincott & Margulies, a brand-consulting firm.
"The sooner they start rebuilding their brand and focus on what they really do well, the better," he said.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS