AOL Time Warner

The largest media conglomerate in the world, Time Warner resulted from the merger of the publisher Time Inc. and the media company Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc. in 1996. Time Inc. founded in 1922 primarily concentrated on magazines and books and in the 1950s moved into the broadcasting and entertainment industry, but in the 1970s announced that it was selling its broadcasting holdings and concentrating on cable television. In 1989 Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications Inc., which besides being a major motion-picture and television studio, was also one of the biggest U.S. music recordings producers and cable-television operators.

In January 2000 Time Warner merged with AOL (America Online) in a US$ 243.3 billion deal. Although AOL so far generated far less profit and turnover than Time Warner its quotation on the stock exchange was clearly higher, making Time Warner the junior partner (45 percent) in the new company. Through its merger with AOL, which is a major player in the online-business and owns several Internet-services like Compuserve, Netscape and Netcenter, the new media conglomerate could significantly enlarge its online presence and also complement its traditional media activities.

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Timeline 1900-1970 AD

1913 the wheel cipher gets re-invented as a strip

1917 William Frederick Friedman starts working as a cryptoanalyst at Riverbank Laboratories, which also works for the U.S. Government. Later he creates a school for military cryptoanalysis

- an AT&T-employee, Gilbert S. Vernam, invents a polyalphabetic cipher machine that works with random-keys

1918 the Germans start using the ADFGVX-system, that later gets later by the French Georges Painvin

- Arthur Scherbius patents a ciphering machine and tries to sell it to the German Military, but is rejected

1919 Hugo Alexander Koch invents a rotor cipher machine

1921 the Hebern Electric Code, a company producing electro-mechanical cipher machines, is founded

1923 Arthur Scherbius founds an enterprise to construct and finally sell his Enigma machine for the German Military

late 1920's/30's more and more it is criminals who use cryptology for their purposes (e.g. for smuggling). Elizabeth Smith Friedman deciphers the codes of rum-smugglers during prohibition regularly

1929 Lester S. Hill publishes his book Cryptography in an Algebraic Alphabet, which contains enciphered parts

1933-1945 the Germans make the Enigma machine its cryptographic main-tool, which is broken by the Poles Marian Rejewski, Gordon Welchman and Alan Turing's team at Bletchley Park in England in 1939

1937 the Japanese invent their so called Purple machine with the help of Herbert O. Yardley. The machine works with telephone stepping relays. It is broken by a team of William Frederick Friedman. As the Japanese were unable to break the US codes, they imagined their own codes to be unbreakable as well - and were not careful enough.

1930's the Sigaba machine is invented in the USA, either by W.F. Friedman or his colleague Frank Rowlett

- at the same time the British develop the Typex machine, similar to the German Enigma machine

1943 Colossus, a code breaking computer is put into action at Bletchley Park

1943-1980 the cryptographic Venona Project, done by the NSA, is taking place for a longer period than any other program of that type

1948 Shannon, one of the first modern cryptographers bringing mathematics into cryptography, publishes his book A Communications Theory of Secrecy Systems

1960's the Communications-Electronics Security Group (= CESG) is founded as a section of Government Communications Headquarters (= GCHQ)

late 1960's the IBM Watson Research Lab develops the Lucifer cipher

1969 James Ellis develops a system of separate public-keys and private-keys

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Extract of AOL Time Warner’s Content Production and Distribution Holdings

The following selection does not claim to present an exhaustive listing, but rather picks some of the company's most important assets. Due to the rapid developments in the world of media giants the list is also subject to changes.

Cable TV Systems and Channels/Networks

Time Warner Cable has 12.6 million subscribers in the U.S. and also runs 5 local 24-hour news stations.

Cable TV channels/networks (some part-owned): HBO, HBO Plus, HBO Signature, HBO Family, HBO Comedy, HBO Zone, Cinemax, MoreMAX, ActionMAX, ThrillerMAX, HBO en Espa-ol, Comedy Central, Court TV, HBO Ole, HBO Asia, HBO Central Europe, CNN, CNN Headline News, CNN International, CNNfN, CNN/Sports Illustrated, CNN en Espa-ol, CNN Airport Network, CNN Radio, CNN Radio Noticias, CNN Interactive TBS Superstation, Turner Network Television, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies, TNT Europe, Cartoon Network Europe, TNT Latin America, Cartoon Network Latin America, TNT & Cartoon Network/Asia Pacific, CNN+, n-tv

Movies, TV, Video Production, and Movie Theaters

Warner Bros. film studio

Warner Bros. Television production studios

Warner Bros. Home Video

Turner worldwide Home Video

Turner Pictures

Castle Rock Entertainment movie production company

New Line Cinema movie production company

Warner Bros. film library

Turner Film Library

Hanna Barbera Cartoons

Owns many movie houses, with over 1,000 screens, around the world

Book Publishing

Time Life Inc.

Book-of-the-Month Club

Warner Books

Little, Brown and Company

Oxmoor House

Leisure Arts

Sunset Books

Magazines

Time, People, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Life, Money, Parenting, In Style, Entertainment Weekly, Cooking Light, Baby Talk, First Moments, Coastal Living, Health, Progressive Farmer, Southern Accents, Southern Living, Sports Illustrated, For Kids, Sunset, Teen People, Time for Kids, Weight Watchers, Mutual Funds, Your Company, Asiaweek, President, Wallpaper. Hippocrates

Recorded Music

Warner Music Group

The Atlantic Group

Elektra Entertainment Group

Rhino Entertainment

Sire Records Group

Warner Bros. Records

Warner Music International

WEA Inc.

WEA Corp.

WEA Manufacturing

Ivy Hill Corp.

Warner Special Products

Alternative Distribution Alliance

Giant Merchandising

Deals with record labels include:

Maverick records

Tommy Boy Sub Pop

Qwest

143 Records

Internet and New Media

About 130 Websites including: CNN.com, AllPolitics.com, CNNSI.com, Time Digital, People, Southern Living, Sports Illustrated

Turner New Media

Online Services including: Compuserve, Netscape, Netcenter

Pro Sports Teams and Promotions

Atlanta Braves major league baseball team

Atlanta Hawks NBA basketball team

World Championship Wrestling

Goodwill Games

Other

Six Flags entertainment/excursion parks

Warner Bros. Movie World theme park

Over 150 Warner Bros. stores, plus Turner Retail Group

25 % stake in Atari

14 % stake in Hasbro

Business Connections with Other Media Companies

Joint ventures, equity interests or major arrangements with Viacom, Sony, Bertelsmann, News Corp., Kirch, EMI, Tribune Co., and others.

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Viacom

One of the largest and foremost communications and media conglomerates in the
world. Founded in 1971, the present form of the corporation dates from 1994 when Viacom Inc., which owned radio and television stations and cable television programming services and systems, acquired the entertainment and publishing giant Paramount Communications Inc. and then merged with the video and music retailer Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. Headquarters are in New York City.

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PGP

A cryptographic software application that was developed by Phil Zimmerman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a cryptographic product family that enables people to securely exchange messages, and to secure files, disk volumes and network connections with both privacy and strong authentication.

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WIPO

The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN), which was designed to promote the worldwide protection of both industrial property (inventions, trademarks, and designs) and copyrighted materials (literary, musical, photographic, and other artistic works). It was established by a convention signed in Stockholm in 1967 and came into force in 1970. The aims of WIPO are threefold. Through international cooperation, WIPO promotes the protection of intellectual property. Secondly, the organization supervises administrative cooperation between the Paris, Berne, and other intellectual unions regarding agreements on trademarks, patents, and the protection of artistic and literary work and thirdly through its registration activities the WIPO provides direct services to applicants for, or owners of, industrial property rights.

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