Jeff Bewkes’s first 100 days, was filled with nothing promising until yesterday evening…kinda

By SDH Luckily for Jeff Bewkes, some progressive news broke on the eve of his first 100 days in office. Today, Thursday April 10th marks the 100th day Jeff Bewkes has been at the helm of Time Warner. On this 100th day, we wanted to take a look at what if at all Jeff Bewkes has accomplished or put in motion at the media giant. Bewkes slid into power with almost no fanfare on January 1st. With him taking the controls at the luggy media giant, many expected the stock price to do a jig but it didn’t. However this wasn’t a lack of confidence in Bewkes from Wall Streeters, the markets were just sucky that day. So what has Bewkes done so far to put the media giant on the road to recovery? From what we see, most of the deals announced under the Bewkes regime are web related signaling a focus on digital like all the other media companies out there. Especially now with the rumored talks between Time Warner’s AOL and Yahoo. But moving forward, we’re expecting some much needed announcements around the traditional business units. We cherry picked a few items from the Time Warner news vault to track some of the haps under Bewkes: On his first earnings conference call, high expectations were set by media analysts and Wall Street, only to be disappointed when Bewkes spat more of the same, only saying that the company will look to sell off AOL’s dial up business, left the possibility of a cable spin off open and said he would revisit Time Inc at a later date so he can watch and see how the publishing unit’s digital efforts perform. Looking to cut costs and streamline Time Warner’s movie business, Bewkes orders the folding of New Line Cinema into the bigger Warner Brothers which lead to the departure of long time New Line leaders Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne opted to leave or were canned depending on who you ask. Names Toby Emmerich President & COO of Newline which is now an operating unit of Warner Bros. AOL acquires Global Social Media Network Bebo for $850 million in cash. We really hope this deal comes out on top I or it could be a serious black eye not only for AOL CEO Randy Falco, but for Bewkes as well. AOL Launches AOL MyMobile All-In-One Application for Wireless Devices TMZ Goes Wireless Via an Ad-Supported, Cross-Carrier Mobile Web Site, with AT&T as the Inaugural On-Deck Mobile Partner New Shortcuts Service Launches to Make Online Coupons For his first 100 days we give Jeff Bewkes a B+. Why a B+ because with the exception of the recent AOL Yahoo talks, (and they are just that, talks), many of the deals mentioned above are your typical content spreading deals, which are good, but Bewkes’s lack of scrutiny on Time Inc may come back to haunt him. Time Inc like AOL should have been one of his main focuses. Time Inc’s digital strategy won’t shine bright until the load is lightened. AOLs $850 million gamble on Bebo won’t show any signs that it’s working well within AOL for a few years especially if a merger with Yahoo does happen. But in business people must gamble or risk being left behind. None of these deals, with the exception of the recent AOL, Yahoo talks, moved the company’s stock because Wall Street is more concerned about the overall structure of the company. They want to know what’s going to happen with cable and the publishing unit among others. When Bewkes announces his plans for these units, the stock will do a jig and a couple summersaults. Whether it moves up or down, all depends on what Bewkes’s plans are and if Wall Street swallows it. * This was written prior to the breaking AOL Yahoo merger news. This announcement will probably have positive affect on Time Warner’s stock. Then again nothing seems to move that stubborn stock price.