Richard “Dick” Parsons
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Richard Parsons, who helped Time Warner divorce AOL in what was considered one of the worst acquisitions in history, has died. He is 76 years old.
His death confirmed Lazarda longtime board member of the company.
Parsons became chief executive of AOL Time Warner in 2002, succeeding Gerald Levin, who had been at the media giant The resignation comes two years after a disastrous $165 billion merger with the fledgling dot-com company.
As CEO and later chairman, he led Time Warner’s turnaround, dropping “AOL” from the company’s name and reducing the company’s $30 billion in debt to $1.68 billion through the sale of Warner Music and other assets. billion dollars.
“The merger didn’t go the way many of us expected. The dot-com bubble burst and we had to fix the leaks,” Parsons told us. independent 2004. “This is not as big a task as many may think because the underlying businesses of old Time Warner – such as publishing, cable networks and movies – are running well.”
He said that after the merger, AOL’s business collapsed, Warner Music Group and the entire music industry were in decline. “As a result, we sold our music business, along with other non-strategic assets, to strengthen our balance sheet and bring in new management.”
Parsons resigned from Time Warner in 2007.
Rockefeller connection
Richard Dean “Dick” Parsons was born on April 4, 1948, into a working-class family in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, and grew up in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York. He is the middle child among five siblings.
He skipped two grades in public school, and at 16, the 6-foot-4 Parsons enrolled at the University of Hawaii, where he played basketball and met his future wife, Laura Ann Bush. Married in 1968.
After graduation, he returned to New York state to attend Albany Law School, working part-time as a janitor to pay for tuition and topping his class. While interning in the New York State Legislature, he developed a relationship with moderate Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who became Vice President under Gerald Ford in 1974 after President Richard Nixon resigned. Parsons became deputy director of President Ford’s Domestic Policy Council.
“Old boy networking is alive and well,” Parsons told new york times In an interview in 1994. “I didn’t grow up with any old boys. I didn’t go to school with any old boys. But by being part of the Rockefeller entourage, it created a group of people who seemed to be advising me from that time on. .
After Ford lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter, Parsons returned to New York and in 1977 joined the law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Weber & Taylor, where his friend Rudy Giuliani Also joined a law firm. Parsons, his wife, and three children moved to Briarcliff Manor in Rockefeller Country, Westchester County. Coincidentally, his maternal grandfather had been the groundskeeper at John D. Rockefeller’s nearby Kykuit estate.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (left) and Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons attend a media event hosted by Time Warner before the Republican National Convention in New York City on August 28, 2004. Chat at the welcome meeting.
Dennis Brack | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Parson’s clients included Rockefeller’s widow, Happy, and Deem Savings Bank of New York. In 1988, he accepted a leadership position at Dime Bancorp, which had struggled with the savings and loan crisis by aggressively approving risky mortgages as home prices plummeted. In 1989, the company lost $92.3 million. In late 1993, after ordering massive layoffs, Parsons helped complete a $300 million recapitalization of the bank. In 1995, he helped Dime merge with Anchor Savings and create one of the largest thrifts in the United States.
Parsons joined Time Warner’s board of directors on the recommendation of Rockefeller’s brother, Lawrence. In 1995, he became president of Time Warner.
A Rockefeller Republican, Parsons considered himself a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. Parsons worked for Giuliani’s New York mayoral campaign but has maintained a behind-the-scenes profile. “I didn’t want to be positioned as the black man who was mayor,” he told The Times a few years later.
In 1993, Giuliani appointed him to run the mayor’s transition team, but Parsons rejected an offer Became Deputy Mayor for Finance. His relationship with Giuliani later soured after the mayor tried to pressure Time Warner Cable to run the then-fledgling Fox News Channel in New York.
Two years after resigning from Time Warner, Parsons becomes chairman of Time Warner Citigroup In 2009, it helped the banking giant stabilize after the financial crisis. In May 2014, he was appointed Los Angeles Clippers interim CEO The NBA previously banned owner Donald Sterling for life for making racist comments.
“Like most Americans, I am deeply troubled by the pain the Clippers, our fans and our partners have endured,” Parsons said.
Parsons downplayed race as a factor in his success.
In 1997, he told The Times: “For a lot of people, race is a defining issue. But not for me. It’s… like air. Like height. I have other things I care about. things.”
Later, he briefly served as chairman of CBS after his retirement. MoonvesExpelled amid allegations of sexual harassment and assault during the #MeToo movement.
After just one month as interim chairman of CBS parsons In October 2018, he suddenly resigned, citing health issues.
“When I agreed to join the board and serve as interim chairman, I was already dealing with a serious health challenge – multiple myeloma – but I felt the situation was manageable,” Parsons said in a statement released by CBS , he has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors. “Unfortunately, unexpected complications created additional new challenges, and my doctors have recommended that reducing my current commitments is critical to my overall recovery.”
Parsons is active in many philanthropic endeavors, including leadership roles with the American Jazz Foundation, the Apollo Theater Foundation and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. While serving on the Apollo Theater’s board of directors, he helped the historic theater Harlem entertainment venues Raised nearly $100 million. The Parsons also donated 40 pieces of art to the foundation American Folk Art Museum In July 2021, it celebrates its 60th anniversary.
