The $26bn bet

Dick Parsons measures his words carefully. That made the Time Warner chairman’s declaration last week that AOL may be worth a staggering $26bn so surprising. But Parsons had a secret. Unbeknownst to AOL chief Jon Miller, he was wooing NBC’s second-in-command, Randy Falco, to take the helm of the internet company. The move punctuates Time Warner’s efforts to transform AOL from a low-multiple, subscriber-driven business into a growing platform for ads that could command lofty Yahoo-type multiples...