Gerald M. Levin

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For the U.S. federal judge, see Gerald Sanford Levin.
Not to be confused with the American businessman Jerry W. Levin.
Gerald Levin
Born(1939-05-06)May 6, 1939
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedMarch 13, 2024(2024-03-13) (aged 84)
Spouses
  • Carol Needleman (divorced)
  • Barbara Riley (divorced)
  • Laurie Ann Perlman Rapke (divorced)
Children5

Gerald M. Levin (May 6, 1939 – March 13, 2024) was an American media businessman. Levin was involved in brokering the merger between AOL and Time Warner in 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, a merger which was ultimately disadvantageous to Time Warner and described as "the biggest train wreck in the history of corporate America."[1]

Early life and education

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Levin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,[2] to a Jewish family of Russian and Romanian origins.[3][4][5] His father was a "butter-and-eggs man" and his mother was a piano teacher.[2] He lived as a child in the suburbs of Philadelphia, in Upper Darby and then Overbrook Hills. After graduating second in his class at Lower Merion High School, where he was named to the Honor Society, he attended Haverford College.[1] He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1963.[6]

Career and later life

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Levin spent most of his career with Time Inc. (later Time Warner, then AOL Time Warner), starting there in 1972 as a programming executive for the new Home Box Office (HBO) and eventually becoming CEO of the corporation after the ouster of his nemesis Nicholas J. Nicholas Jr. Interviewed by the journalist Nina Munk, Levin would later admit: "It is absolutely true that I plotted the departure of Nick Nicholas after working with him for 20 years. And I don't have any justification for it other than I am a strange person."[1] Levin was best known for orchestrating with Steve Case the disastrous merger between AOL and Time Warner in 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, which destroyed $200 billion in shareholder value as the bubble collapsed. Following the deal, CNBC named him as one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time."[7] According to The New York Times, the merger is used by business schools as a case study of "the worst [deal] in history."[8] In her book about the deal, Munk writes, "The disastrous merger...epitomizes the culture of corporate America and Wall Street in the late 1990s. It records the climate in executive suites, where as long as a company's stock price kept going up and up, a CEO was all-powerful, like a king with divine rights."[1]

Whereas Levin had once been "perhaps the most powerful media executive in the world",[9] he largely disappeared from public view after the collapse of AOL Time Warner. In 2007, he was reported by New York (magazine)[9] to be "presiding director of Moonview Sanctuary, a “holistic healing institute” with a full-time staff of fewer than twenty people" founded by his new wife, Laurie Ann Perlman, a clinical psychologist. In 2013, he was named chairman of a start-up called Elation Media, raising $150,000 of seed funding, according to Crowdfund Insider, to launch a "live and on-demand service" with programming topics that include "alternative medicine, world peace, visionary art, personal growth and the environment."[10] As of July 2022, Elation TV does not appear to have launched.

Personal life

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Levin was married three times and fathered five children.[11] His first wife was Carol Needleman; they divorced in 1970.[2] In 1970, he married Barbara J. Riley;[2] they divorced in 2003.[12] His third wife was Laurie Ann Perlman;[13] they divorced in 2020.[14][15]

Murder of Jonathan Levin

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One of his children, Jonathan Levin, a 31-year-old high school English teacher at Taft High School in the Bronx, was murdered on May 31, 1997, during a robbery by one of his former students.[16][17] The student, Corey Arthur, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to the maximum allowed term of 25 years to life in prison in November 1998, with the judge concluding that Arthur had taken sadistic pleasure in the crime and shown no remorse. An alleged accomplice, Montoun Hart, was acquitted on the same charges in February 1999. While Hart had written a confession, jurors were not able to find out how it was obtained and felt it was unreliable.[18]

The murder occurred after Jonathan had mentioned in the classroom that his father was Time Warner head Gerald Levin. Prosecutors said Arthur and Hart, assuming that Jonathan was wealthy, stole Jonathan's bank card and tortured him to obtain the account's PIN, obtaining about $800 from the account.[19]

Jonathan Levin High School for Media and Communications in The Bronx, New York City, is named after the murdered teacher.

Death

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Levin died at a hospital on March 13, 2024, having been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease prior to his death. He was 84.[20]

Further reading

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  • Munk, Nina, Fools Rush In: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner (HarperCollins, 2004) ISBN 978-0060540340
  • Klein, Alec, Stealing Time: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner (Simon & Schuster, 2003) ISBN 0-7432-5984-X

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Munk, Nina (2004). Fools Rush In: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner. HarperBusiness. ISBN 0060540346.
  2. ^ a b c d Reference for Business: "Gerald Levin - Retired chairman and chief executive officer, AOL Time Warner" retrieved March 29, 2015
  3. ^ To the End of Time: The Seduction and Conquest of a Media Empire. Simon & Schuster. 1992. ISBN 9780671692278. Retrieved August 13, 2010. Russian-Romanian.
  4. ^ David Plotz (January 14, 2000). "Time Warner's Gerald Levin". Slate.
  5. ^ Cleveland Jewish News: "The 30-plus most influential Jews in America" December 27, 2001
  6. ^ Kornelis, Chris (2024-03-14). "Gerald M. Levin, Time Warner Chief in a Merger Debacle, Dies at 84". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  7. ^ CNBC.com
  8. ^ Arango, Tim (11 January 2010). "How The AOL-Time Warner Merger Went So Wrong". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  9. ^ a b Stevenson, Seth (6 July 2007). "The Believer". The New York Mag. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
  10. ^ Crownfund Insider: "Elation Media Reveals Kansas’ Paul Mai Backing; Announces Series A Funding Round" by Samantha Hurst June 16, 2015
  11. ^ "Gerald Levin". Heights - Jewish Business Ethics. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
  12. ^ New York Times: "Private Sector; Which Kind of Merger Is Harder: The Corporate or the Marital?" by Geraldine Fabrikant January 12, 2003
  13. ^ Levin, Laurie Ann (October 1, 2009). God, the Universe, and Where I Fit In. HCI. p. 245. ISBN 9780757314407.
  14. ^ Variety: "Levin heads for divorce" by Jill Goldsmith January 12, 2003
  15. ^ Alexandra Wolfe and Anna Jane Grossman (June 2, 2003). "Hot Flash! Trophy Wife Models Are Passé: Rudy to Jack Welch, Remarrying Geezers Get Middle-Aged Babes With Power Dowries". The Observer.
  16. ^ David Rohde (December 11, 1998). "Jurors Convict Youth in Killing Of His Teacher". The New York Times. Retrieved April 25, 2011.
  17. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths Levin, Jonathan". The New York Times. June 4, 1997. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  18. ^ Laura Italiano (February 12, 1999). "Levin-Slay suspect's booze & pot spree sets him free". New York Post.
  19. ^ "Jonathan Levin is tortured and killed by his former student". History Channel. May 30, 1997.
  20. ^ Kornelis, Chris. "Gerald M. Levin, Time Warner Chief in a Merger Debacle, Dies at 84". The New York Times. Retrieved March 13, 2024.
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Business positions
Preceded by Time Warner CEO
1992–2002 		Succeeded by
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