Is Doug Shapiro’s hiring a clue in what's to come at Time Warner under the Bewkes administration?

-YOSH With former media analyst and long time advocate of a Time Warner break up Doug Shapiro taking over Investor Relations at the media giant, is CEO elect Jeff Bewkes painting a clear picture of exactly what it is he plans to do with the company? Henry Blodget at Silicon Alley Insider points to what we think is credible evidence that Time Warner is planning some kind of major spin off of a major unit and/or a total break up. If you disagreed with a break-up strategy, would you hire Shapiro? And who better to sell such a strategy to Wall Street than an analyst who was recommending it? More Evidence That Time Warner (TWX) Plans to Break Up [SAI]

Another banker joins Time Warner

-YOSH In a few weeks Jeff Bewkes will officially take over as Time Warner's big cheese. Since the announcement of his promotion, Bewkes has been slowly but surely putting in place people he wants around him and getting rid of those he doesn't, like outgoing CFO Wayne Pace. The latest member of the Bewkes administration comes not from within, or from another media company, This one comes from Bank of America. Douglas Shapiro was a media analyst for Bank of America's securities unit and has been in the Time Warner fold for about a month now. Under Bewkes he will become head of investor relations. Shapiro joining the team continues what seems to be a trend at Time Warner. Both Bewkes and Chairman Dick Parsons came from Banks. As head of the department that communicates with Time Warner’s long-suffering investors — the shares have lagged since the ill-fated 2001 merger with AOL — Mr. Shapiro will probably spend much of his time explaining how Mr. Bewkes’s plans, which will be slowly unveiled in the early months of next year, will help improve shareholder value. Media Analyst Takes Post at Time Warner [NYT]