Kellner to get $80M-plus for stake in WB.AOL-Time Warner has agreed to pay a reported $80 million to $90 million for the 11-percent stake in The WB Network that network CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. and Turner Broadcasting System Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (often abbreviated TBS Networks or TBS, inc.) is the company managing the collection of cable networks and properties started by Robert Edward "Ted" Turner from the mid-1970s to the late-1990s. Chairman Jamie Kellner Jamie Kellner is an American television executive. He was chairman and chief executive officer of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a division of Time Warner which includes TBS, TNT, and Cartoon Network. and a handful of other network executives still hold. As a result, Kellner told reporters Nov. 13, he will remain as network CEO and chairman of AOL-Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System through 2004 when his contract expires. Brad Turell, a spokesman for the network, said Kellner had a clause in his contract when he took over TBS in 2001 that required him to sell his stake in the WB, which he launched in 1995, to AOL-Time Warner by January. At this point, AOL-Time Warner owns 64 percent of the WB and Chicago-based Tribune Co. 25 percent. Last June, Kellner pulled two new action cartoon shows from the Cartoon Network For Cartoon Network outside of the United States, see . Cartoon Network is a cable television network created by Turner Broadcasting which primarily shows animated programming. so they would not compete with the WB's slate of action cartoon shows. At the time, Kellner's decision reportedly angered some at TBS, which operates Cartoon Network, because they believed he was favoring the WB at the expense of TBS channels. Adding more fuel to the fire was his decision to show "The Wizard of Oz Wizard of Oz reaches and departs from Oz in circus balloon. [Children’s Lit.: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz] See : Ballooning Wizard of Oz false wizard takes up residence in Emerald City. [Am. Lit. " on the WB this fall ahead of its traditional annual run on TNT TNT: see trinitrotoluene. TNT in full trinitrotoluene Pale yellow, solid organic compound made by adding nitrate (−NO2) groups to toluene. . Although Kellner denied any favoritism, the issue came as some analysts worry about whether Kellner's stake in the network is a factor in his decision making. "It just doesn't look good from the outside," said Tom Wolzien, an analyst with Bernstein & Co. Kellner also owns 5.6 percent of Santa Ana-based Acme Communications Inc., a publicly held company that has 12 television stations that carry the WB signal. That arrangement also makes some AOL-Time Warner investors nervous, said Timothy Wallace, a media analyst for Banc of America Securities. But Jack Myers, media analyst and publisher of the media newsletter The Jack Myers Report, said much of the talk about Kellner's loyalties is overstated o·ver·state tr.v. o·ver·stat·ed, o·ver·stat·ing, o·ver·states To state in exaggerated terms. See Synonyms at exaggerate. o . "He's as upstanding as they come," Myers said. "Everything he has done has been a benefit to Turner and the WB and not to himself." Kellner, who still oversees the WB's operation from his Atlanta office, also helped launch the Fox Broadcasting Co. in 1987. |
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