• Dow Jones, Thursday, February 2, 2006 11 AM

Talking to analysts--and against the backdrop of Carl Icahn's noisy bid to break up the company--Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons said yesterday that he and his board would not "experiment with flavor-of-the-day" strategies to increase the media conglomerate's long-depressed share price. "Our board of directors and management are confident that we are on the right course," Parsons said. "No one can run these businesses better than the current management is running them." Time Warner stock has risen sharply in the last couple of days since the company reported fourth-quarter results, which were slightly better than anticipated. "After many years of far-off forecasts, convergence in the media business is actually here," Parsons told Wall Street. "I'm happy to report... we have been preparing for this and we see it as a great opportunity for our unique set of assets to prosper and create value." Some outsiders, most notably Icahn, say that Time Warner management could best unlock the company's value by breaking into four separate units. Parsons does not agree. He does, however, agree with Icahn that a stock buyback program is a good idea, and this week he announced that such a program would continue.

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