Angry shareholders took the floor at AOL Time Warner Inc.'s annual meeting on Thursday as management admitted that some of the company's plans had derailed during the year, and pledged to make it up to investors. The stock of the world's largest Internet and media company has plunged about 70 percent from the time AOL agreed to buy Time Warner in January 2000, as many of the promised benefits from the $106.2 billion deal have failed to materialise.
"While we began laying some of the groundwork, the fact of the matter is that the AOL business and our vision of a combined company got off track," said Chairman Steve Case at the company's annual meeting at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York.
"We won't overpromise but we will promise that we will be doing everything to rebuild confidence in your company and value as a shareholder," he added.
Executives have repeatedly blamed the advertising slump for the company's recent woes, but Case also cited slower subscriber growth at its AOL unit, which had been identified as a key growth engine after the merger, and difficulty upgrading subscribers to high-speed Internet services.
Bureau Report