• Fortune, Tuesday, January 24, 2006 11:01 AM

The peripatetic Andy Serwer (editor at large of Fortune, who also appears on two CNN shows) sizes up the confrontation between Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons and "investor-provocateur" Carl Icahn as a "sensational battle" between two very different personalities.  Parsons is cool, confident. Icahn is rough around the edges. According to Serwer, Icahn has managed to round up a number of credible individuals as board members for a slate he intends to run against the current Time Warner board. Although some observers have said Icahn is having trouble recruiting the right kind of talent for his board, Icahn denies this. Serwer, a Time Warner employee, also reports in his Fortune story that Icahn is hoping to merge some of TW's businesses--AOL, the TV networks and the Warner Bros. movie studio--with an Internet portal.  (One intriguing bit of news:  Serwer says Icahn has talked to Barry Diller about bringing Diller's InterActive/IAC into the coming battle.)  As for Time Inc., the media company's publishing division, Serwer says Icahn would spin it off, along with Time Warner Cable.

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