Levin shakes TW reins
Among the tangible signs was the confirmation of four new board members, as well as the announcement that the company has increased its quarterly cash dividend 14% from 7 cents per share to 8 cents per common share. Leading the symbolic proofs was the introduction of a new corporate logo, along with a pledge to help "write the single most successful, influential and profitable chapter in Time Warner's history."
Free of the controversy that marred past gatherings -- heated debate over Ross' whopping compensation package and pickets protesting the company's release of Ice-T's incendiary "Cop Killer" song -- Levin was able to use his first meeting as chairman to concentrate on the company's financial achievements of the past year and tout the company's new alliance with U S West.
Levin noted that the company continues to restructure its balance sheet, lengthening debt maturities, reducing financing costs and increasing cash flow. He said such actions will add $ 240 million to Time Warner's annual cash flow. He also reiterated that $ 1.5 billion of U S West's $ 2.5 billion will be used to further reduce debt.
"Everything we undertake will be designed to maintain or improve the investment grade status Standard & Poor's conferred on Time Warner last year," Levin stressed.
Speaking of the company's alliance with U S West, Levin said it will "accelerate dramatically" the company's timetable for deploying its Full Service Network in its clustered cable systems. "Along with its significant financial investment,U S West offers expertise in switched telecommunications. Eventually, working with U S West, as well as Toshiba and Itochu, we'll bring this architecture to systems around the globe."
In unveiling the new logo, which replaces the pseudo-Egyptian eye/ear logo Ross enthusiastically introduced at the company's first annual meeting following the merger, Levin said that since "Time Warner's powerful product brands and divisional identities are the best known and most effective emblems of Time Warner's vitality and strength, we felt that simplifying the corporate logo would make for a more harmonious overall identity system and would grant our brands the prominence they deserve."
But while the new logo -- a simple rendering of Time Warner framed by lines -- may represent a way for Levin to mark the real beginning of his tenure, he was frank about acknowledging that he is simply fulfilling the blueprint Ross drew up for the conglomerate following the merger.
"There are moments in time when the future ceases to be indistinct and the shape of things to come emerges in unmistakable outline," Levin said. "For Time Warner, that moment is here. It is the moment Steve Ross saw so clearly when he helped shape this company."
In other business, the company elected four new members -- Carla Hills, David Kearns, Rueben Mark and Fay Vincent -- to its board of directors, and reelected Edward Finkelstein and Henry Luce III.
