Gerald M. ‘Jerry’ Levin, TV Executive Behind Time Warner-AOL Merger

Gerald M. “Jerry” Levin, a television executive who rose to the top of Time Warner and orchestrated its ill-fated merger with America Online, which defined his legacy, died at the age of 84 in Long Beach (CA). Levin played a key role in the creation of HBO, helped spearhead the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Media, and led the subsequent acquisition of Ted Turner’s media holdings—including CNN—to create the largest news and entertainment company in the world. The combination of television and movie production with popular cable channels, a pay-TV distribution system, a record label and a magazine-publishing behemoth made Levin one of the most powerful media executives of the 20th century. But Levin will be most remembered for the disastrous $165 billion merger with America Online, announced in January 2000. Coming at the top of the first internet bubble, the deal was described by the two companies as a “strategic merger of equals to create the world’s first fully integrated media and communications company for the Internet Century.”