AOL Admits Accounting Flubs
WinInfo | at | by Mike
Meeting a Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) requirement that publicly-held companies have their chief executives sign off on financial statements, AOL Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons was forced this week to admit that the company probably inflated revenues by almost $50 million over the past 18 months. Executives say that they are now aware of three suspicious transactions that might have resulted in earnings overstatements for America Online (AOL), the online division of AOL Time Warner. They also admitted that further investigation into the company's books might reveal other problems. You know, I'm watching this company just fall apart all over the place, and it's hard to believe that the merger between AOL and Time Warner was even allowed in the first place. Corporate executives have been cooking the books for decades, but where was the federal oversight when these two companies were given the OK? Maybe it's time to turn the current round of corporate investigations towards the government entities that signed off on this deal.