BEEF: Carl Icahn VS. Dick Parsons

In what is shaping up to be one mighty showdown, corporate raider Carl Icahn and Dick Parsons, Time Warners CEO and arguably the most powerful black executive in the world are battling for control of Time Warner, the worlds largest media company.

This beef is all about the performance of Time Warner stock which Icahn believes would raise if Time Warner were to break up.

Fortune Magazine describes Parsons as being smooth and cool, and Icahn as rough and noisy. Icahn is also very rich, 49th richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine with a net worth of $7.8 billion.

Icahn is leading a group of investors pushing to restructure Time Warner, although they control only about 3% of the company's stock. Their plans include breaking up Time Warner into four campanies, stock buybacks totaling about $20 billion and replacing Time Warners board and upper management. The plan also called for slashing corporate expenses by cutting jobs, combining operations and streamlining overhead. He recently recruited Frank Biondi Jr., a former chief executive of Viacom Inc. and Universal Studios, to help lead his campaign.

Parsons and Time Warners current management respond that Icahn is only interested in short term gain at the expense of long term share holders. Parsons who became head of Time Warner after its ill fated merger with AOL has shown disciplined management. His management team has cleaned up Time Warners books by settling law suites and paying down debt.

Time Warner Inc.'s fourth-quarter profits were up 21% to $1.4 billion verses $1.1 billion, or 24 cents a share last year. The profit amounted to 29 cents a share, beating analysts' estimates. Revenue rose 7% to $11.9 billion.

Parsons also points out that all media stocks are depressed right now but Time Warner stock is trading at 15-20% above other media companies.

The winner of this battle will be decided by which side can line up the most share holders to back their plan at Time Warners annual share holder meeting later this year. Time Warners management seems to have that backing currently but that can change at anytime.