Frank Biondi Joins Carl Icahn's Investor Group to Lead Proxy Fight for Time Warner

Frank Biondi Joins Carl Icahn's Investor Group to Lead Proxy Fight for Time Warner

NEW YORK, Jan. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Frank Biondi, former Chairman and CEO of Universal Studios, Inc. and former President and CEO of Viacom, Inc. has joined Carl Icahn and his investor group in their effort to elect directors and implement a turn-around plan for Time Warner.

Mr. Biondi will lead the proxy fight in conjunction with the Icahn Group. Upon the election of the Icahn/Biondi slate of directors, Mr. Biondi has agreed, if appointed by the board, to serve as Chairman and CEO of Time Warner and to oversee the implementation of the Lazard restructuring plan. This will include a separation of Time Warner's component businesses and a large share repurchase program. The restructuring will provide the strategic platform for each business unit to maximize value for shareholders in today's fast-moving media environment.

"Frank brings decades of experience building and running successful media businesses," said Icahn. "He helped make Universal, Viacom and HBO into the successes they are today. We are confident he will do the same for HBO's parent company, Time Warner."

In implementing the Lazard-developed turn-around plan, Mr. Biondi stated he intended to make Time Warner a far more nimble, market-driven organization by reducing its duplicative $500 million-a-year corporate overhead and by freeing the individual companies within Time Warner to successfully pursue their creative and strategic interests.

"In order to achieve its true potential, Time Warner's culture must change to enable each of its separate business units to develop their own strategies and capitalize on their leading roles in the rapidly evolving media sector," said Biondi. "They must not be constrained by a counterproductive bureaucracy at Columbus Circle. Time Warner has the world's leading media assets. However, its share price has failed to reflect the inherent potential of its assets."

Currently Senior Managing Director of WaterView Advisors LLC, Mr. Biondi previously was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Studios, Inc. From 1987 to 1996, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom, Inc. He now serves as a director of Amgen, Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp., Harrah's Entertainment, Inc., Hasbro, Inc., Seagate Technology, and The Bank of New York Company, Inc.

Prior to joining Viacom, Mr. Biondi was Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola Television. In addition, he was Executive Vice President of Coca-Cola's then entertainment sector and its predecessor company, Columbia Pictures. Prior to that, he served as CEO of Home Box Office.

On Tuesday, February 7th at 3:30 PM, Mr. Biondi will be joined by Carl Icahn and Bruce Wasserstein, Chairman of Lazard, to present Lazard's Time Warner study. The Lazard study provides a detailed analysis of Time Warner and a blueprint for how Time Warner should be reconfigured to provide for a more successful, entrepreneurial and valuable company. The event will be open to all Time Warner shareholders and to the media. Later this week, we will provide location details and a Web broadcast and dial-in number for the event for those who cannot attend.

Source: Icahn & Co.

CONTACT: Susan Gordon, of Icahn, +1-212-702-4309; or Frank Biondi,
+1-310-476-9879

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