And Then There Were Two

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The arrival of Bewkes and Logan at corporate headquarters should free Parsons to focus on the company's strategic challenges, including unwinding the Time Warner Entertainment partnership, in which AOL Time Warner's TV, movie and cable assets are held and their ownership shared with a minority partner. It's the sort of complex structure that investors hate these days. Parsons also must manage AOL Time Warner's $28 billion in debt and rebuild credibility on Wall Street, which has not forgotten how long it took Levin and Pittman to climb down from their promises of 30% growth in cash flow amid an ad recession.

Parsons' effort on Wall Street is aimed at getting investors to reset the clock regarding their expectations about his company, especially the AOL division, which is not growing at 30% a year but does remain a money machine that vacuums up $9 billion in annual revenue. Insiders expect that the board will give Parsons and his new team about a year to show results--including a substantial rise in the stock price, which closed last Friday at an all-time low of $11.58.

--With reporting by Eric Roston/New York