The AOL Time Warner Disaster | Cold Case | 3
Business Wars
Wondery
4.6 • 13.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 August 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The AOL Time Warner merger is done. Now Jerry Levin and Steve Case must deliver on the bold promises. But will disharmony in the ranks and slumping ad sales be the undoing of the merger — or was the entire deal doomed from the start?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Wonderly Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of business wars, the AOL Time Warner disaster, early and ad-free right now. |
| 0:08.3 | Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. |
| 0:12.7 | Please be advised that the following episode contains depictions of violence and is not suitable for everyone. |
| 0:27.4 | Thank you. not suitable for everyone. January 2000, a few hours before AOL and Time Warner announced their plan to merge. |
| 0:33.5 | At AOL headquarters in Dulles, Virginia, the boardroom's a buzz. |
| 0:37.7 | Senior Time Warner and AOL executives work shoulder to shoulder, |
| 0:41.5 | racing to ready the necessary paperwork to enact the merger. |
| 0:45.5 | Among them is David Colburn. |
| 0:47.6 | He's head of business affairs at AOL. |
| 0:50.4 | His department will spend a good chunk of the next 12 months |
| 0:53.3 | trying to keep the merger on track |
| 0:55.3 | by finding ways to fluff up AOL's quarterly results. But right now, Colburn's focus is on the |
| 1:03.5 | thick contract in front of him. He waged through page after page of dense legal ease. One of the clauses references another contract. |
| 1:14.0 | He looks around his desk for the document. |
| 1:16.8 | It's not there. |
| 1:18.3 | He turns to face the Time Warner executive next to him |
| 1:21.0 | and points at the name of the missing contract. |
| 1:23.8 | I need this file. Now, go get it. |
| 1:26.8 | The Time Warner man frowns, but retrieves the file all the same. |
| 1:31.7 | But when Coburn tries to take it, the executive doesn't let go. David, I did not appreciate your tone |
| 1:39.1 | toward me just now. You're acting like you're taking us over. That's because we are. Give me that. Colburn yanks |
| 1:46.0 | the file out of the shock Time Warner executive's hand and gets back to work. When Time Warner's top |
... |
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