Warner Communications Inc

Warner Communications Inc. has announced that it has accepted Ted Ashley's resignation as a vice chairman and director. Ashley will continue as a consultant.

Warner Communications Inc. has agreed to halt a promotion policy that, according to the Federal Trade Commission, involved price fixing for audio and video albums of the Three Tenors opera stars. The commission said in a complaint announced Tuesday that Warner collaborated with subsidiaries of the French company Vivendi Universal to raise prices for the recordings.

For years they were fierce rivals within the high-stakes corporate worlds of Time Inc. and Time Warner in New York N.J. Nicholas Jr., the tightly wound financial expert, and Gerald M. Levin, the scholarly strategist. Nicholas gained the upper hand in early going, and he went on to become president of Time Warner. But in the end, the company's strategic interests won out.

Nicholas J. Nicholas was ousted as president and co-chief executive of Time Warner Inc. on Thursday in an apparent coup organized by the company's ailing chairman, Steven J. Ross, with whom Nicholas shared the CEO title. Nicholas, a 52-year-old veteran of Time Inc., had clashed repeatedly with Warner Communications Inc. founder Ross, 64, who is being treated for prostate cancer and has been homebound since the end of November.

It's been a year this week since Steven J. Ross presided over the formal close of history's biggest media company merger, but he gets questions about at least one aspect of it every time he asks for a menu. "I'd love to go to a dinner where somebody doesn't ask me what we're going to do about the debt," says Ross, who is chairman and co-chief executive of Time Warner Inc. "Even the waiters ask." The cross-examination continues because the issues, like the $10.

When Sony bought Columbia Pictures, the shock wave rolled across America--the Japanese had finally made the move into Hollywood. And the bitter legal fight with Warner for producers Guber and Peters sent aftershocks through the film industry for months. A look behind the scenes of this epic deal provides insight into how Sony will do business in Hollywood and what's in store for the '90s.

Time Warner Inc., reporting its earnings for the first time since Time Inc. acquired control of Warner Communications, said it lost $176 million on revenue of $2.2 billion for the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Time Warner's loss was due in large part to interest expenses incurred as Time bought 100 million Warner shares, as well as the heavy costs of paying for Warner's executive compensation plans and the amortization of goodwill made as part of the acquisition.

Warner Communications Inc. chairman Steve Ross has thrown his considerable clout behind "Musicians for Life," a national media campaign designed to improve awareness of the perils of and possible treatments for AIDS. Ross said the campaign was initiated at the behest of U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who has repeatedly asked that entertainment concerns help educate the young about the deadly illness.

Warner Communications Inc. will pay $25 million to buy the company that owns the song "Happy Birthday to You," according to a published report. Birchtree Ltd., which owns the birthday song, soon will be acquired by Warner Chappell, the world's largest music publisher and a Warner division, the New York Times reported in Monday's editions, quoting unnamed executives it said were involved in the deal.