Time Warner May Face Shareholder Push for HBO Spinoff (Report)

New York-based Corvex Management is “weighing a move”

BEVERLY HILLS, CA - OCTOBER 06: Time Warner Inc. Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Bewkes speaks onstage during day one of TheWrap TheGrill 2014 at Montage Beverly Hills on October 6, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by David Buchan/Getty Images)
TheWrap

Activist shareholders of Time Warner are trying to force the media company to sell, or at least unload, its popular and powerful pay-TV channel HBO.

New York-based Corvex Management “is weighing a move,” the New York Post reported late on Thursday evening. The theory on a spinoff is that perhaps HBO could do better as a standalone company like the giant Netflix.

Corvex is run by Keith Meister, the former Carl Icahn lieutenant. Icahn had made a bid to break up Time Warner 10 years ago.

Time Warner stock dropped sharply this morning at the 9:30 a.m. ET opening bell, then rose and recovered. It repeated the quick dive at 10 a.m., slipping to deeper depths than it had in the initial decline. Even as share prices sink further, they remain up from Thursday’s close of $70.25 apiece.

Generally speaking, the past year saw a pretty good first half for TWX stock and a pretty lousy second half. Below is a snapshot of the most recent 12-month performance. The current day-trading price, dollar gain and percentage gain at the time of this writing are on top.

TWX

Thursday was a busy day for the parent company, as HBO and the Turner Broadcasting cable channels presented their new slates of shows at the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, California.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes (pictured above) just extended his contract to lead the company for another three years.

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