Lazard may push for Time Warner breakup

PHILADELPHIA: Lazard Ltd., the investment bank serving as an adviser to New York financier Carl Icahn, is likely to recommend that Time Warner Inc. be broken into pieces, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Icahn hired Lazard last week to press a proxy battle to replace a majority of Time Warner's board. Icahn is leading a group of investment firms that control nearly 3 percent of media company, whose properties include CNN, Home Box Office, Time magazine and Time Warner Cable.

Lazard's evaluation of Time Warner is likely to be finished in January, the WSJ reported in its electronic edition.

Already, however, the investment bank sees Time Warner's disparate businesses as having few synergies, and believes the media conglomerate's $500 million in overhead expenses could be reduced, according to the WSJ.

"I can't tell you whether it should be broken up into four pieces or three pieces," an unnamed source told the newspaper. "But it should be broken into some number of pieces."

Time Warner has been holding talks with both Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. about a potential investment or partnership with its AOL Internet business, sources previously told Reuters.

Time Warner, Lazard, and Icahn could not be immediately reached for comment.