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.

At TimeWarner, the makeover has begun

BY SDH On Saturday, Jeff Bewkes will hit the two month mark as Time Warner CEO. It will also mark the beginning of the long awaited restructuring under the Bewkes Administration. As speculated just two weeks into the CEO gig, Jeff Bewkes has made his move on New Line Cinema. The movie studio will now be thrown under the Warner Bros umbrella and New Line Co heads Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne will get their walking papers, but of course that part is being spun as if leaving the company was their choice. This is just part of the first stage of what many expect to be a drastic makeover of one of the world's biggest media companies, whose stock has been stock in a ditch and whose dominant position has dwindled as competitors like News Corp take the lead. Now if only Bewkes didn’t decide to do a wait a see with the company’s overweight magazine business, Time Inc. We are moving quickly to improve our business performance and financial returns," Time Warner President and CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a statement. Time Warner puts New Line Cinema under Warner Bros [Reuters]

For Jeff Bewkes, it’s a damned if you do damned if you don't kinda situation

BY SDH Just a little over a month on the job and Jeff Bewkes finally gave some hints as to what his immediate first plans are to set overweight Time Warner on a path to re-invention (if you will). As you know by now from all the coverage its been getting, the lanky lord of everything from CNN to HBO to Time Inc, said that his team is working to split off AOL's outdated dial up business with plans for a possible sale (to who?), he is also taking a long hard look at cable and will get back to investors on that one. But the shocker of that whole earnings report for us was the fact that Bewkes says that he is sticking it out with Time Inc, the publisher of magazines like Time and People. OK so maybe it wasn't too much of a shocker but we thought that like AOL and Time Warner cable, Time Inc would have been put on a lift for a serious look under the hood. Nope. Bewkes will decide what to do with the magazine business if and when it turns into a growth business with all the digitalization going on over there and all. So anyway on that note, today's poll: IS JEFF BEWKES MAKING A MISTAKE BY LEAVING TIME INC INTACT? YES, THE COMPANY HIT A GLASS ROOF YEARS AGO NO, IT CAN BECOME A GROWTH BUSINESS JEFF BEWKES IS AN IDIOT

Jeff Bewkes cutting some bloated salaries in Time Warner's corporate suite

-SDH Being the CEO of a publicly traded company, you're always on a mission to keep costs down and revenue up. One of the ways to do this is to fire a bunch of people and then claim those salaries as part of your overall earnings on paper so investors are happy and you're job is safe until the next quarter or something like that. Usually the cuts happen way down the ladder among minions of minions of minions. Time Warner has one of the thickest layers of management in the business. Some people there even have titles that doesn't even hint at what it is they do. But this may be coming to an end or if not an end some layers will be erased as AdAge reported yesterday that Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes plans to cut bury 75 bodies in corporate which will no doubt save the company a nice chunk of cash. This is perhaps the beginning of more drastic changes on the horizon in management and the overall structure of the company. Who will be affected by these cuts? Our money is on the middle-men. No one should be surprised at this at all. Jeff Bewkes did say that he will do whatever he as to do to please shareholders and have no calms about it.

Correction: Time Warner reports a 41 percent decline in fourth-quarter profits, Bewkes shares his immediate plans

"In change lies opportunity, and I have great confidence in our future" -Jeff Bewkes, CEO TimeWarner -SDH In its first earnings report under new CEO Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner reported a 41 percent decline in fourth-quarter profits but met or exceeded financial objectives for 2007. Looking ahead Jeff Bewkes claims that the company has identified key initiatives that will allow them to deliver strong results well into the future. Apparently that will start with the pink slipping of over 60 employees followed by a long awaited restructuring. Wall Street is still wondering what will happen with AOL now that a sale of the internet giant valued at $20 billion may not be a reality. For now AOL continues to undergo a major overhaul from sleepy dial up to an ad driven portal. Investor have focused on AOL, which is in the midst of a radical overhaul as it gets out of the dial-up Internet business and builds up its online advertising model. Wall Street had hoped Time Warner could sell or spin off AOL, but those prospects became murkier last week after Microsoft Corp. announced an unsolicited bid for Yahoo Inc. That would not only eliminate two likely bidders for AOL, but also create a major online advertising power. Cable TV Drives Time Warner Profit [NYT]

Selling AOL is probably the last thing on Jeff Bewkes's mind

-SDH Since the Microsoft bid for Yahoo! speculations started to come from all angles regarding Time Warner's AOL business. Some say AOL could be doomed, some say there is no one to buy AOL now and some call it, Jeff Bewkes's first test. We call it all bullshit. Who says Jeff Bewkes was even thinking abut selling off AOL. Personally, we think he is going to keep AOL under Time Warner and continue to build it into an ad powerhouse while focusing more on what to do with old content businesses like Time Inc, and fully spinning off Time Warner cable. The only change we would like to see at AOL is Randy Falco gone and replaced by a real internet guy. AOL is just part of a bigger test Jeff Bewkes faces. He already passed the first test and that was to show the board he is the man to takeover the company. Related: AOL buys online affiliate marketing network buy.at

It took Microsoft's bid for Yahoo! not Jeff Bewkes's appointment as CEO to move Time Warner's stock

-SDH Microsoft's monstrous bid for web giant Yahoo! is sending shock waves through the media industry and people like Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes probably couldn't be happier. Microsoft's bid for Yahoo! is making investors take another look at Time Warner's AOL unit. Following news of the Microsoft bid, Time Warner's stock shot up a little over 9% as investors slapped a higher value on AOL. But unless Time Warner is selling AOL then this valuation is just some kind of mental comfort for investors, no? ``All of a sudden, it helps people sharpen their pencils and do a similar valuation on the AOL business,'' said David Katz, chief investment officer at Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. in New York, which owns about 3 million Time Warner shares among $1.6 billion in assets. ``It's worth 60 percent more today than yesterday.'' Time Warner Gains on AOL Valuation After Microsoft's Yahoo Bid [Bloomberg]

Is Jeff Bewkes about about to flat line New Line?

-SDH According to Nikki Finke New Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes is set to meet with New Line Cinema founders Bob Shaye and Michael to discuss their soon to be up contracts. However according to Finke no new deal is expected to come out of the discussions. What is expected to come out of the discussions is the end of New Line. Bewkes is expected to fold New Line into Warner Bros in a clear effort to cut what he may see as unnecessary costs. Is this the beginning of more cuts leading up to a full blown break up of Time Warner? Finke says: I can't pinpoint just when the formal announcement of Shaye's and Lynne's departures will come, but it's a safe bet that New Line will be folded into Warner Bros as a result, moving such premium projects as the long anticipated back-to-back feature films of that beloved book The Hobbit. Well, it's about time! Kudos to Bewkes for having the brass balls to make this bold move. I've found Bastard Bob's behavior over this past year to be abhorrent, from his studio's legal shenanigans with Peter Jackson to his own "Lord Of The Rants" attacks on director after director who's made money for New Line. Good thing Shaye will be leaving sooner rather than later: I was running out of pejoratives (like "prick" and "idiot") to describe him. SOURCES: Bob Shaye's New Line Contract Won't Be Renewed By Time Warner Boss [Deadline Hollywood]

Time Warner hops on the virtual world bandwagon

-SDH We were expecting something a little more jolty if you will, but this will have to do for now. The first deal announced under The Bewkes Administration, has Time Warner dumping an undisclosed amount of cash in Gaia Online, a Web-based social community aimed at teenagers. The company had earlier workings with Gaia via it's Warner Bros unit. Now TimeWarner will continue the relationship by allowing the site to offer up full-length older movies for on-demand viewing for $1.99. Ground Breaking isn't it? "Studios are seeing their teens leaving traditional film and television to go online and they need to supply that audience with an equivalent form or new form of entertainment," Gaia CEO Craig Sherman said. TIME'S WORLD VIEW [NYP]

Good Morning Mr. Chief Executive: Today is Jeff Bewkes's first day on the job

Today, is a new day at media giant Time Warner. It’s even a newer day for Jeff Bewkes as he steps into the glitzy Time Warner Center as the new CEO. His coffee is probably waiting for him in his office, as well as a full schedule, then again this is probably the norm since his HBO days. No need for Jeff to hop on the corporate jet and head off to the West Coast to meet with Studio heads and other underlings. They were all already reporting to him anyway. So in a nut shell, nothing has really changed except that the buck stops with him now. Jeff's team of assistants probably already had an email drafted that will go out to the troops at some point today if at all. We know for sure that Jeff will be calling up major shareholders, if he didn't already, to talk the talk and reiterate to them that making them richer is his priority, even if it means, firing some people. For the next 99 days we will be watching Jeff Bewkes's every move as CEO. We don't expect any major changes in a little over 3 months but hopefully by the end of this time he will have his team in place. -YOSH