Time Warner Inc

Time Warner Inc. Prepares to Sell Interactive Unit: The New York-based media giant has hired Wasserstein Perella Securities to find a buyer for its Time Warner Interactive unit, according to a person familiar with Time Warner's strategy. The division, which makes CD-ROM and arcade games, is being sold because the CD-ROM operations will be concentrated within Time Warner Inc.'s other divisions, including Warner Music and Warner Bros. films, the source said.

Oded Aboodi, the leading financial adviser to Time Warner Inc. and a key architect of its 1990 merger, Thursday settled civil insider trading charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission and agreed to pay $931,000 in penalties. In its complaint, the SEC alleged that two of Aboodi's family partnerships sold Time Warner common stock when Aboodi knew that Time Warner management had approved a controversial stock rights plan in May, 1991.

Time Warner Inc. began selling films including "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" and TV shows such as "The Dukes of Hazzard" over the Internet using download service CinemaNow Inc. Beginning with "Firewall" on Tuesday, the company's Warner Bros. studio also will make films available on CinemaNow the same day they are released on DVD, Marina del Rey-based CinemaNow said.

Time Warner Inc., the entertainment and media giant, announced on Tuesday the finalization of its long-planned, $1-billion partnership with Japan's Toshiba Corp. and C. Itoh & Co. The Japanese firms will receive a 12.5% stake in a subsidiary venture, Time Warner Entertainment Co. The commitment to form the partnership was announced last October. The subsidiary, which is 87.5% owned by Time Warner Inc., encompasses the Warner Bros.