Kellner Go Bye-Bye?
Date: Tuesday, November 12 @ 11:23:30 EST Topic: Etc.
As reported by The New York Post, there might be reason to get a party started. They're reporting that Jamie Kellner, that CEO of Turner that everyone loves to hate, is about to get a $65 million payday for his stake in The WB Network. This wouldn't be that newsworthy, except for one widely speculated piece of info:
Insiders are speculating Kellner will take the money and bolt from AOL(willingly or not). We might taste freedom.
Kellner took this momentum he had with The WB and turned that into a higher position at AOL Time Warner when the broadcast network was merged into Turner Broadcasting, making Kellner CEO. Kellner isn't well-liked by many people, and has been cited in many decisions that harmed Kids' WB(Big Kids Go First) as well as Cartoon Network and Toonami(pulling "Rejected" from Adult Swim, Kids' WB Toonami, among many many others). Like Haim Saban and the former Fox Family Worldwide, Kellner had this power due to his personal stake in the network. Without this stake, Kellner's influence could possibly be reduced.
So why would AOL be keen to kick Kellner out? Simple-- a sea change in corporate politics. The AOL executives and the people that helped to engineer the AOL-Time Warner merger have been gone, and CEO Steve Case is expected to be gone from the company within a year. Most importantly, however, Ted Turner has taken a more active interest in the company, and it's well known that Billionaire Ted and That Kellner have not gotten along very well.
This is SPECULATION and does not likely indicate fact. However, the Post has actually been proven to be accurate in this field, and the climate change at AOL means that Kellner's days could be numbered. Cross your fingers and hope for the best...
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