AOL Time Warner confident about hitting 2001 targets

NEW YORK - US media and internet giant AOL Time Warner said it was on track to meet its financial targets for 2001 without further job cuts or price increases, and expressed confidence that US advertising revenues are stabilising.

Speaking at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, AOL Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin said that he does not believe there is an upturn yet, but stressed that advertising revenues are stabilising.

The company announced plans to axe 2,400 jobs earlier this year as part of a cost-cutting drive after the completion of the AOL and Time Warner merger. Levin said he does not expect the company to shed further jobs.

The announcement comes just four weeks ahead of the group's first-half results, due on July 18. The group originally believed that the market would stabilise in the second half of the year.

Levin said, "There's no question there's an advertising slowdown that's very much affecting broadcast television and newspapers but, for us, we have several high-growth areas such as AOL, which we expect to grow at a healthy pace."

The group expects to achieve earnings of $11bn (£7.9bn) for 2001 and revenues of $40bn (£28.6bn).



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