Filed by America Online, Inc.
Pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act of 1933
Subject Company: AOL Time Warner Inc.
Commission File No. 001-12143
The following communications contain forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. References made in the following, in particular, statements
regarding the proposed AOL/Time Warner merger are based on management's current
expectations or beliefs and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties
that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the
forward-looking statements. In particular, the following factors, among others,
could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the
forward-looking statements: inability to obtain, or meet conditions imposed for,
governmental approvals for the merger; failure of the AOL or Time Warner
stockholders to approve the merger; costs related to the merger; the risk that
the AOL and Time Warner businesses will not be integrated successfully; and
other economic, business, competitive and/or regulatory factors affecting AOL's
business generally.
For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements, please refer
to the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, especially
in the "Forward-Looking Statements" section of the Management's Discussion and
Analysis section of the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30,
1999 and the Risk Factors section of the Company's S-3 filing that became
effective in November 1999.
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THE FOLLOWING ARE TALKING POINTS THAT MAY BE USED FROM TIME TO TIME BY
SPEAKERS ON BEHALF OF AMERICA ONLINE, INC.:
First let me tell you a little about the AOL -- Time Warner combination about
which I am sure you are all curious. We are very excited about this merger which
will truly represent a one-of-a-kind 21st Century Internet, media and
entertainment company. The combined company will bring together an array of
world-class media and entertainment franchises, the world's premier consumer
online brands, and the most advanced electronic delivery systems.
We expect the merger will increase competition in the coming broadband
environment -- driving the growth of broadband Internet services more quickly
and making them less expensive for consumers.
Indeed, combining Time Warner's journalistic heritage with AOL's history as a
pioneer of the Internet medium will help maintain America's leadership in a
transformed global marketplace. It will facilitate and encourage global
electronic commerce - bringing wealth home and creating more high-paying jobs
for Americans.
The combined company will retain AOL's core commitment to building a new
Internet medium we can all be proud of and will be uniquely positioned to meet
the challenges of bridging the digital divide, enhancing educational resources
for our children, and encouraging civic discourse among all citizens.
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THE FOLLOWING IS A TRANSCRIPT OF A TELEPHONE CONFERENCE HELD ON FEBRUARY 7, 2000
WITH ROBERT W. PITTMAN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER OF AMERICA ONLINE,
INC., AND J. MICHAEL KELLY, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER OF
AOL
Thank you all for joining us this morning. Let me start today with a few words
about our vision for our Time Warner merger and its huge opportunities for
growth, and then turn to the strong momentum for the new enterprise that each
company is building.
To show you why AOL Time Warner will be in a class of its own in the Internet
industry, we'll detail how each company will transform the other's businesses.
Then I'll update you quickly on how our transition is coming along, and I'll end
with some ways you might think about valuing the new company.
Our merger with Time Warner will create a new company with world-class brands,
unmatched infrastructure, technological expertise and a shared vision for the
Internet Age that will be able to lead the transformation of the interactive
medium, and increase the penetration into consumers' everyday lives.
AOL Time Warner will stand alone in the breadth and quality of interactive
services we provide to consumers, and the financial and operating performance we
deliver for shareholders.
That's because AOL and Time Warner will act as catalysts on each other's current
businesses, and create new business opportunities -- some we see today, and,
frankly, as we've come to learn, some that we will discover together.
Our Internet resources will be the catalyst for high growth across Time Warner's
divisions.
As you know, in the Internet business, when you infuse well-known and
well-trusted brands with easy-to-use interactivity, and strong distribution, you
get a much more immediate impact than you do with a start-up. You don't have to
live through the years of building the brand reputation.
And, because we will be fully integrated, we will be best positioned to pioneer
new services and products.
Time Warner's resources will be a catalyst for catapulting the development of
next generation broadband and AOL Anywhere services, as well as additional
subscription and ad/commerce growth throughout the AOL brands and products.
Time Warner properties will provide huge benefits for AOL TV, as well as fuel
the creation of entirely new types of entertainment on that platform, as well as
all the companion devices you've been hearing so much about.
Today, we announced a key AOL Anywhere initiative in Europe - you may not have
seen it, but it is out already - that will set the worldwide model for how we
will take advantage of the growth opportunity of the "mobile Internet." In fact,
more than one-third of Europeans are expected to be using mobile Internet phones
by 2004.
Through today's alliances with Nokia, Ericsson and RTS Wireless, AOL Europe will
start mobile trials in the UK, Germany and France -- aiming to provide AOL
members, and other mobile users across Europe, the same level of quality,
convenience and community they have enjoyed on the PC.
Time Warner news, financial, sports and entertainment content and a range of new
commerce opportunities will fill the pipeline for mobile devices. As we follow
our members anywhere and everywhere, the AOL Time Warner merger will ensure we
give them every reason to stay connected.
Over the next three to five years, we will witness even more dramatically, the
next wave of growth, as the PC user extends interactivity to the television,
telephone and other Internet devices.
And no company will have a better platform to deliver next-generation Internet
services and to benefit from this convergence than AOL Time Warner. By providing
each other's missing pieces, AOL Time Warner will be able to capture unique
value that neither company could ever hope to on its own.
When you look at our individual companies, you can see the strengths that each
of us are bringing to this combination.
As you saw from our second quarter earnings, we are continuing to heighten the
powerful momentum behind our global businesses -- even as we lead the way to the
next stage of the Internet's potential.
We delivered a record-setting financial and operational performance for the
quarter, with strength throughout all of our businesses.
Our flagship AOL service added a record 1.8 million worldwide subscribers during
the quarter. At the same time, we've established CompuServe 2000 as the leading
value brand, adding 440,000 new subscribers for the quarter, and we've added
Gateway.net to our family of brands, as well, in this quarter.
Last week, AOL membership surpassed 21 million.
So, we now have close to 24 million paying members. On top of that, we have some
135 million registered users of our free Web-based brands, including ICQ and
Netscape Netcenter - and that's right, I did say 135 million registered users.
And although you know about our success with ICQ, you may not realize how well
Netscape Netcenter is doing on its new mission. According to the latest Media
Metrix report, Netcenter's has surpassed Excite, Go and Lycos in total reach at
home and work. That's quite an accomplishment for that product.
And, late last month, we took another major step in making AOL membership even
more valuable with the announcement of AOL AAdvantage -- our partnership with
America Airlines to create the world's largest online customer loyalty program.
AOL members and consumers, using our other brands, now will have more ways to
earn miles online and offline, and to quickly and easily redeem them.
We also entered into an exclusive alliance with Netcentives to provide the
infrastructure to scale our rewards network to support an increasing numbers of
members and commerce partners. Today, we are also creating "ICQ ClickRewards" --
a rewards program for ICQ members that will enable us to continue to monetize
the world's largest online communications community.
Our e-commerce and advertising businesses also are setting new records. During
the last quarter, our advertising, commerce and other revenues climbed 79% over
last year to $437 million. And AOL members spent $2.4 billion online during the
holiday season.
Plus, we've stepped up the expansion of our international services with record
membership growth in key European markets and the launch of America Online
Brasil. And, of course, ICQ continues its strong international trajectory.
In addition to our initiative in mobile Internet usage in Europe, AOL Anywhere
also is making significant progress. We previewed AOL TV and new companion
devices to rave reviews at the Consumer Electronics Show last month. And we've
announced key acquisitions of Tegic and MapQuest to further this strategy.
Taken together, our businesses could not be stronger, and we are well positioned
to extend our leadership.
As you heard last week, Time Warner's strong earnings show that its businesses
also are experiencing growing momentum. Time Warner is building its own
leadership across all of its businesses -- with strong record performances and
such strategic moves as its pending acquisition of EMI.
Similar to our own business model, Time Warner grew its revenues across three
major buckets: Subscriptions, advertising and e-commerce, and content. And, like
us, its fastest growing category is high-margin advertising and commerce from
its increasingly successful Turner Networks, publishing, WB network, local cable
and TV syndication operations.
To put this success into even sharper perspective, just look at IDC's macro
projections for Internet and e-commerce services that forecast an increase from
$4.6 billion in 1997 to $43 billion in 2002 -- a 57% annual growth rate. All you
have to ask yourself is what share will AOL Time Warner be able to capture of
that bucket.
Just to underscore the merger's dramatic potential for immediate impact on Time
Warner's businesses, Gerry Levin and Rich Bressler told analysts that they
expect to greatly accelerate the digitizing of their valuable content brands
through pre-merger agreements with us to take advantage of AOL's infrastructure.
As you know, our shared, cost-efficient infrastructure has been central to AOL's
growth and profitability. Because of our infrastructure -- bought and paid for
by the AOL service -- we are able to operate our Web portals at about 20% of the
cost of free-standing competitors, and we are benefiting from major savings in
our international operations and CompuServe.
To help you envision how these two companies will work together, I want to give
you some examples of how a powerful catalyst transforms businesses with top
brands, solid earnings, big customer bases, and significant habitual use -- and
drive to new and dramatically higher growth rates.
The CD allowed the entire music business to reinvent itself with new consumer
demand -- exploding from a $3.7 billion business in 1978 to $13.7 billion by
1998.
Cable was a Mom & Pop industry for providing distant broadcast TV signals, until
satellite networks such as HBO, CNN, and TBS took advantage of the satellite to
create incredible value -- driving cable subscription revenue from a little over
$883 million in 1975 to $33 billion in 1998.
We're convinced that the Internet will be a catalyst to an explosion of growth
that will far exceed the impact of the cable networks and the CD. As Andy Grove
reminds us -- all businesses eventually will be Internet businesses, and AOL
Time Warner's combined capabilities will make it the pacesetter of this global
revolution.
Here's how we think our Internet expertise, leading brands, infrastructure and
audience become an electrifying catalyst for immediate growth in the value of
Time Warner products and businesses.
1) We think AOL Time Warner will be able to do for music what AOL did for
e-mail. Our Cyberstudy showed that 61 percent of users 18 to 24 are already
downloading music -- despite the fact that it is still hard to do. And, once we
make it easy and convenient, we will be able to build community, commerce and a
powerful new delivery vehicle around Warner Music.
2) With more than 100 million subscriptions between us, the ability to move
Time, Inc. subscriptions to AOL's "evergreen" billing and to sell each other's
subscriptions at almost no incremental cost can have a huge impact on the bottom
line.
3) In ad/commerce, a recent Myer's Group research study found that the three
most sought-after media companies by marketers are AOL, Time Warner, and Turner
Broadcasting -- in that order. Imagine the power of having them all under one
roof.
And AOL Time Warner will be able to take e-commerce to the next level. We could
offer packages that leverage our unparalleled reach across interactive
properties, publishing, television, music and cable. In short: "location,
location, location."
4) Brand advertising and cross-promotion should lead to additional savings of
the nearly $1 billion annually AOL spends on marketing. And we'll realize
significant cost-savings with call centers, data centers, and customer service.
5) Our infrastructure can provide Time Warner cable with a broadband cost
structure it could not reach on its own. And since AOL has half the subscription
members in the US, we'll have the unique opportunity to upgrade them to
broadband at almost no marketing cost and without asking them to change brands.
6) The merger will serve as a tremendous catalyst for further global growth.
Time Warner operates in more than 100 countries, and its globally popular news,
entertainment and music properties will provide a huge competitive advantage in
attracting interactive audiences abroad.
7) Our highly successful collaborations with Time Warner for Austin Powers and
You've Got Mail just scratch the surface of what we can achieve in
cross-promotion and, ultimately, content services with AOL MovieFone and other
brands.
8) And, finally, Our ICQ and AIM communications platforms are a fantastic fit
for Time Warner's cable systems as they move toward cable telephony.
When you look at the range of these market segments and the size of these
opportunities, just consider AOL Time Warner's capability of extending its
leadership in each and every one of them. So, clearly, the growth opportunities
for us are tremendous.
And we're already off to a fast start on the transition to the new company.
After putting together 10 marketing, commerce, content and promotional
arrangements in just the weekend before the merger announcement, we're
developing a range of other possible relationships to the extent permitted.
Our transition process is in high gear -- with a number of teams among our
executives focusing on a range of operational issues and new opportunities. As
you think about this business, you understand -- and we understand -- that
pioneers benefit from significant first-mover advantages. But the value of
paradigm-breakers like AOL Time Warner is difficult to capture with traditional
measures.
Clearly, we together will be able to drive incremental revenue and EBITDA growth
far higher than AOL or Time Warner could have achieved on its own. The combined
company will have a revenue base in excess of $40 billion our first full year
and EBITDA of approximately $11 billion including synergies.
And we believe AOL Time Warner will grow EBITDA by about 30% in its first year,
which is comparable to the growth rates of other leading Internet-powered
companies like Cisco, and even higher than Microsoft.
Given the trading multiples leaders like these enjoy in the market today,
clearly, there is much value to be created for our shareholders and we look
forward to doing exactly that.
In sum, when you put AOL and TimeWarner together, it will be the only company
able to deliver news, entertainment, information and communications to consumers
around the world with the leading brand in every significant category.
Turbo-charging all these brands will be the high-growth benefits of AOL's
interactivity -- speed, convenience, ease-of-use, and accessible anywhere over a
cost-efficient infrastructure.
No other company will have the ability to penetrate so many aspects and so many
hours of consumer's lives daily -- becoming increasing essential and valuable.
This year, the Internet industry started all over again. And AOL Time Warner
represents a rare opportunity for the market to get in on the ground floor of an
all-new medium like nothing we've seen before.
Q: Clearly the long-term synergies between AOL and Time Warner are tremendous.
Are there any synergies near-term - pre-merger - that can be recognized, or
begin to be pointed to, over the next year or so.
BP: Absolutely. We are looking at commercial relationships now and, I will tell
you, it runs everything from shared co-op advertising to looking at how we sell
subscriptions together to how we market together, obviously. The properties they
create and translate onto the Internet can use some of our infrastructure. We do
that on a commercial basis. We can give them distribution, which we are in the
business of doing, and you know the results of doing that, and move them into an
immediate leadership position. And so on, and so on. I will tell you, what's
interesting is, at this point, just from our folks talking, the list was longer
than any of us imagined. And those of us who are optimists are surprised as the
opportunities almost multiply the more you talk about them.
MK: My guess is what you will start to see is a pattern of announcements with
more commercial relationships really evidencing all the great potential that
we've got here and really turning it into real economics. So, over the next
months ahead, I expect to see a series of announcements coming out reinforcing
the possibilities.
Q: Can you talk about one of the other key metrics--member usage--which has
continued to climb pretty steadily over the last year to year-and-a-half? Now
above an hour per user. Can you talk about what's changing in the members' usage
pattern that's causing them to use the service more, and what are they doing
more of?
BP: It's interesting. I joined the company about 3 1/2 years ago and the usage
then was about 14 minutes a day. So it's been on a rapid increase over the
years. I think it's the same thing you see with any product that's getting
embedded in peoples' lives and becoming a necessity. When I first got a cell
phone, I used it a little bit. Now I use it all the time. The first month I had
a cell phone, you could have taken it away from me. Today, I can't live without
it. The same with the television, the vcr, the telephone and the Internet. On
AOL, we give you your name, you set up your buddy list, you set up your
portfolios, you get accustomed to certain communities of interest and the people
there. Those are very sticky applications that cause you to be, not only
interested in this product and making it a necessity in your life, but you've
become very brand affiliated and locked to it because of these sticky
applications.
What I think is also interesting about the AOL service is that if you look at
usage of AOL, 85% of the usage is within the four walls of AOL, while only 15%
goes out to the Internet at large. No other service comes close to those
numbers. In fact, most other services would think that the reverse of that was
pretty good for them. So it says that the consumer is looking for AOL to be
home-based looking for AOL to pick the stuff they need and want and use and put
it in a convenient way.
What is also interesting, making the point about their habitual usage, and
making this a necessity, is now the majority of our members use it five days a
week. So its becoming like stopping at the end of the drive way and opening the
mail box and checking the mail as habit. Every night you go and turn on the
computer and do whatever you do on the computer. And everyday you find a little
more to do -- book your vacations, kids doing their term-paper, etc. Once you've
got it online, you don't go back to the offline way of doing it because it's
easier, more convenient, and more time efficient online.
Q: One of the things we've seen recently is just a flurry of activities
surrounding your international properties. Can you talk about what your strategy
is there, and are many of these markets starting to enter that high-growth,
mass-market stage?
BP: Let me hit that. It's a great point. First, let me say the leading
international service out there is actually ICQ, which we own now. It is like
free services, or Web portals, or whatever. You can capture only part of the
value because that's not the paying relationship with the member which is
probably the strongest. When we get to those services, obviously AOL and
CompuServe have done very well -- leading international products. If you broke
international out of AOL, it would be the number 2 Internet company. So we are
doing very well.
We do have one constraining factor worldwide, and that is, that in most
countries, the local calls are toll calls. They do not have unlimited local
calling so people gate their usage of the Internet, not because of the Internet,
but because of the telephone call. Our sense is that this is a temporary problem
because, either regulatorily or competitively, there will be pressures to change
that. We think that's temporary. In spite of that, we've seen dramatic growth
around the globe. What's interesting is that our UK and German ventures with
Berterlsmann have been growing at levels they've never seen before in the past
six months, yet the competition has never been hotter.
A year ago, people were worried that some of the free services would somehow hit
AOL hard. What I think they're beginning to realize is that AOL is not in the
value segment, it's in the premium segment, therefore, we don't sell price and
price is not the metric of our success. I think we've been pretty good about
jumping into the value segment when we can spot an opportunity. Freeserve paved
the way for the value segment in the UK and we've dropped Netscape Online there
as a free service, and it has done quite well. Again, we've got this
infrastructure, we've got a knowledge base, and we've got resources which allow
us to exploit any opportunity we find, not only in the U.S., but worldwide.
The final point I would make on the worldwide operation is that, when you go
into a country where you've got 4 or 5 million users of the Internet, no one can
afford to build the kind of robust service we've got for AOL ... except us. And
the way we do it, is we leverage everything bought and paid for by the U.S. AOL,
to provide this service which is head-and-shoulders above the quality of the
others. And what's interesting is, if you look around the globe, you know what
differentiates AOL from all of its competitors in every country in the world?
How much the member uses it. The time spent on AOL is dramatically higher than
competitive ISPs in every country in which we operate, and we think, at the end
of the day, that's the long-term competitive advantage.
Q: One final question. If you really look at many of these international
markets, the actual consumer device usage is the inverse, in many respects, of
what it is in the U.S., where cell phone usage is high, PC usage is realtively
low, and so on. So how does this affect AOL's entry into those markets, or does
it have any meaningful effect on how [?] potentially use AOL services?
BP: It's interesting. What it says for us is that we're probably putting Europe,
for example, ahead of the U.S. in terms of our priorities in some of the
wireless devices because they do have high usage. Some of that relates to the
charges for the wireline usage and the fact that they do have a common standard
in Europe. All of those issues will hit in the U.S. And the good news is that we
are able to work out the kinks in it ... go through it and learn from some of
the experiences in Europe ... and import it back to the U.S. where it may have a
bigger monetary opportunity for us than it had for us in Europe.
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Investors and security holders are advised to read the joint proxy
statement/prospectus regarding the business combination transaction referenced
in the foregoing information, when it becomes available, because it will contain
important information. Such joint proxy statement/prospectus will be filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission by America Online, Inc. Investors and
security holders may obtain a free copy of the joint proxy statement/prospectus
(when available) and other documents filed by America Online at the Commission's
web site at www.sec.gov. The joint proxy statement/prospectus and such other
documents may also be obtained from America Online by directing such request to
America Online, Inc., 22000 AOL Way, Dulles, Virginia 20166, Attn: Investor
Relations, tel: (703) 265-1741; e-mail: [email protected].
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