To the End of Time: The Seduction and Conquest of a Media Empire [Hardcover]

Richard M. Clurman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1992

Today, Time Warner is the biggest media conglomerate ever. No single company has ever held such powerful sway over the world's hearts and minds. Dick Clurman tells how what happened when the movie men of Warner invaded the once-mighty Time magazine empire.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The ballyhooed merger of Time Inc., blue-chip publishing empire, and Warner Communications, high-flying pop entertainment conglomerate, was the biggest media merger ever and the last such highly leveraged deal in the booming 1980s. In a gossipy, juicy probe packed with details on the seamy side of Warner's business dealings, Clurman ( Beyond Malice ), a former Time Inc. journalist and executive, portrays top Warner honcho Steve Ross as a smooth-talking, seductive mogul with a checkered past who romanced Time's top management even as the fine print in the merger agreements punished stockholders and gave Warner a strong upper hand. Clurman focuses on the personalities, the disparate corporate cultures and the mixed results of the marriage thus far in a no-holds-barred inquiry that digs beneath the headlines to reveal the ills and challenges facing the new mega-empire. First serial to Vanity Fair; author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Time Warner was born out of a merger between Time Inc. and Warner Communications, resulting in the creation of arguably the largest media conglomerate in the world. How did these two giants find their way to the corporate altar? It is a fascinating story, and Clurman, a former Time writer, sets the stage by taking us back to when Henry Luce, Time Inc.'s founder, reigned supreme and how at his death in 1967, Time Inc. represented the pinnacle of American journalism. We also see the early beginnings of Steven Ross, the charismatic leader of Warner and later the CEO of Time Warner. Through extensive research as well as interviews with all the principals, Clurman presents the intrigue, the legal chicanery, the questionable antics of investment bankers anxious to "get the deal done," and the drive to get top dollar ostensibly for the sake of shareholders but in reality more for top executives and other corporate insiders. What was the price tag for all of this? At slightly over $14 billion with almost another $500 million in various banking, financial, and legal fees, it was the last major merger of the 1980s. To the End of Time is an informative, entertaining, and often compelling story. Recommended for all large business collections and journalism/media collections.
- Richard Drezen, Merrill Lynch Lib., New York
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1St Edition edition (February 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671692275
• ISBN-13: 978-0671692278
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,208,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The Beginning of Really Big Media, April 7, 2009

By 

MKM "mad about books" (Bronxville, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To the End of Time: The Seduction and Conquest of a Media Empire (Paperback)

"To the End of Time" is about the merger between Time Inc and Warner Communications during the eighties written primarily from the Time Inc. perspective. Richard Clurman worked for Time for over twenty years so has a lot of inside knowledge of the company, people and history. He reviews the background of the two companies and for the Warner side focuses on Steve Ross as the man that built Warner Communications into a successful entertainment company. The main themes in the book are the impact on the merger of the two very different cultures of the two companies, the merger process itself, Steve Ross's ability to charm and persuade in a way that made it seem like it was the other person's idea and finally the beginning of the diminishing of print journalism. The last one is even truer today then it was 18 years ago when the book was written.

Richard Clurman even with strong ties to Time provided a fairly objective view of both sides although it was clear that he was more familiar with the Time side and to be fair his thesis was the impact on Time. Connie Bruck's "Master of The Game" is a good book to get the opposite perspective from the Warner side. At the time the book was written the author could not know if the merger would be successful and in fact at that time Wall Street had a very unfavorable opinion. However knowing what we know now the real value in Time Warner is the content (movies, HBO, network and cable programming, DC comics/Batman). The plumbing (cable companies) are being spun off and the print side still has an iconic aura but the readership has continued to decline and is more dependent on on-line presence. AOL was a bad bet but that came after the subject of this book. So one could say the content side of both sides of the merger are doing very well and therefore support the original instincts of the architects of the merger.