Richard 'Dick' Parsons
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty images
Richard Parsons, who helped Time Warner divorce AOL after what was considered one of the worst control of history, has died. He was 76 years old.
His death was confirmed by Lazardwhere he was a member of the longtime board of directors.
Parsons became CEO of Aol Time Warner in 2002, replacing Gerald Levin, who withdrew two years after the disastrum of $ 165 billion from the media giant by the Internet Unistart company.
As CEO and subsequent president, he directed Time Warner of Time Warner, abandoning “AOL” by the name of the company and by reducing the company's $ 16.8 billion by selling Warner Music and other properties.
“The merger did not work as many of us expected it. The internet bubble broke out and we had to repair the leaks,” said Parsons The independent In 2004. “It was not as monumental as many people thought, that the fundamental companies of the old Warner – such as publication, wired networks and films – worked well.”
He said that after the merger, AOL's affairs collapsed and that Warner Music Group was down, with the entire music industry. “So we sold our musical business, as well as other non -strategic assets, to strengthen our balance sheet and put a new management.”
Parsons resigned from Time Warner in 2007.
Rockefeller connection
Richard Dean “Dick” Parsons was born into a working class family on April 4, 1948, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and grew up in South Ozone Park in Queens, New York. He was an average child among five brothers and sisters.
He frequented the public school, jumping two notes and at 16 years old, the 6-foot 4-inch parsons registered at the University of Hawaii, where he played basketball and met his future wife, Laura Ann Bush, which he married in 1968.
After graduating, he returned to New York State to attend the Albany law faculty, Moonlighting as a part -time concierge to help pay for his tuition fees and finish at the top of his class. During an internship at the New York State legislature, he developed links with moderate republican governor Nelson Rockefeller, who became vice-president under Gerald Ford in 1974 following the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Parsons has become associate director of the President Ford National Policy Council.
“The Old-Boy Vis network,” said Parsons The New York Times In an interview from 1994. “I grew up with any of the old boys. I did not go to school with any of the old boys. But becoming part of this Rockefeller entourage, who created for me a group of people who have watched me since.”
After the defeat of Ford by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 elections, Parsons returned to New York and joined the law firm Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler in 1977, just like his friend Rudy Giuliani. Parsons and his wife and three children moved to the country of Rockefeller, Briarcliff Manor in the county of Westchester. By coincidence, his maternal grandfather had been a field of field in the neighboring field of John D. Rockefeller, Kykuit.
The former mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, on the left, and Richard Parsons, CEO, Time Warner Inc., discuss the media Bienvenue Party organized by Time Warner before the National Republican Convention in New York, New York on August 28, 2004.
Dennis Brack | Bloomberg | Getty images
Parson's customers included the widow of Rockefeller, Happy and the Savings Bank of New York. In 1988, he accepted a Term Bancorp head offer, which had struggled by the crisis of savings and loans after having aggressively approved high -risk mortgages as the prices of housing collapsed. In 1989, he posted a loss of $ 92.3 million. At the end of 1993, after commanding massive layoffs, Parsons helped the bank make a recapitalization of $ 300 million. In 1995, he helped the engineer to the merger of Dime with anchor economies, creating one of the country's largest savings institutions.
Parsons joined the Time Warner Board on the recommendation of Rockefeller's brother, Lauurance. He became president of Time Warner in 1995.
As a republican Rockefeller, Parsons considered himself a tax curator and a social liberal. Parsons worked for the Giuliani campaign for the mayor of New York, but kept a profile behind the scenes. “I didn't want to be positioned as the mayor's black guy,” he told Times a few years later.
Giuliani took charge of the mayor's transition team in 1993 but Parsons refused an offer Become deputy mayor of tax affairs. His relationship with Giuliani then embittered after the mayor tried to put pressure on Time Warner Cable to transport the New York range chain.
Two years after leaving Time Warner, Parsons has become president of Citigroup In 2009, helping to stabilize the banking giant following the financial crisis. In May 2014, he was appointed Interim CEO of Los Angeles Clippers After the NBA forbidden the owner Donald Sterling for life because he had made racist remarks.
“Like most Americans, I was deeply disturbed by the pain that the team, fans and clippers partners have endured,” said Parsons.
Parsons played the race as a factor in his success.
“For many people, the race is a decisive problem. It is not for me,” he said to Times in 1997. “It's … like air. It's like the height. I have other things on which I focus. ''
He left his retirement later to briefly serve the president of CBS following The moonves“Eviction following allegations of sexual harassment and assault during the #MeToo movement.
After only a month as an acting president of CBS, Parsons Suddenly resigned in October 2018, citing health problems.
“When I agreed to join the board of directors and serve as an acting president, I was already facing a serious health challenge – multiple myeloma – but I thought the situation was manageable,” Parsons said in a CBS statement announcing that it was replaced by Strauss Zelnick. “Unfortunately, unforeseen complications have created new additional challenges, and my doctors have indicated that the reduction of my current commitments is essential to my overall recovery.”
Parsons was active in many charitable organizations, in particular by playing leading roles for Jazz Foundation of America, the Apollo Theater Foundation and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. During his years to the board of directors of the Apollo theater, he helped the history Harlem entertainment location Raise nearly $ 100 million. Parsons and his wife also donated 40 works of art to the American folk art museum In July 2021 to help celebrate its 60th birthday.
