Time Warner Inc., New York, today agreed to pay a $300 million penalty and restate its historical financial results for the fourth quarter of 2000 through 2002, reducing its reported online advertising revenues by about $500 million, as part of a settlement with the SEC. The company also agreed to properly reflect the consolidation of AOL Europe in its 2000 and 2001 financial statements and to hire an outside examiner to review its historical accounting of certain transactions. Time Warner neither admitted nor denied the SEC's allegations. The $300 million will be distributed by the SEC to investors hurt by the company's alleged overstatement of financial results.
In a separate administrative action, the SEC charged Time Warner executives Wayne H. Pace, CFO; James W. Barge, controller; and Pascal Desroches, deputy controller; with violating federal securities laws in misstating financial results.
