Wed - Time Warner extends stock buy back

Time Warner, the world’s largest media group, today lifted its share buyback programme by $7.5bn as it reported an 80% rise in 3rd quarter net profits.

The company said it now planned to repurchase $12.5bn of stock over the next 21 months rather than the $5bn originally announced in August.

I guess Mr Icahn is getting his way after all. Or, is this just a technique to keep him at bay while Time Warner makes their own decisions on what to do with their cable business and with AOL. We should find out very soon.

And with Microsoft's latest announcements and their launch of live.com what's really going on with their discussions about merging MSN and AOL? It either looks more likely to happen - or just more stupid. And, of course, Parsons must never underestimate Microsoft!