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- THE WEEK, Page 15BUSINESSWanted: Outsiders
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- Under pressure from shareholders, Time Warner downsizes its
- board
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- Public dissatisfaction with corporate governance of late has
- engendered a movement toward more independent boards with fewer
- so-called inside directors. Yet the jumbo-size board that
- resulted from the merger of Time Inc. with Warner Communications
- in 1989 was heavy with company executives. To streamline the
- unwieldy group, Time Warner said it would reduce its board from
- 21 members to 12 and cut the number of insiders from six to two.
- The board agreed on the plan, which had been under consideration
- for months, just one day before the death of Time Warner
- chairman and co-chief executive Steve Ross.
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- The consolidation was a direct result of pressure from
- shareholder groups like the California Public Employees
- Retirement System, which was troubled by the company's high debt
- and by such actions as an aborted 1991 stock-rights offering.
- Many suspected that the board was merely rubber-stamping such
- decisions. Now it is up to CEO Gerald Levin to consolidate the
- benefits of the merger.
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