Google has expanded in ways that could barely be anticipated at the beginning of the millennium, leading to billions in revenue and an established global brand. Ted Turner, while making a point about renewable energy at a conference, said that while he believed in Google, his partners at Time Warner didn’t.
“This is what I said at the Time Warner board room. I’m not on the board anymore because they didn’t get it. We have to stop doing the dumb things and start doing the smart things, said Turner. “We had five percent of Google in a music merger and I said to Dick Parsons, ‘Dick, I think we ought to hang onto that Google stock.’ That was 10 years ago. He said that company is a bunch of bulls**t.”
It seems like executives from established older media underestimated the advertising pull of one of the leaders of digital media. Turner made another television related example, comparing wind and solar energy to the revolution cable brought about TV programming.
“It’s just as big a win as cable TV was going to be,” said Turner. “People don’t want three channels, they wanted a hundred. I don’t know what the hell they do with them, but you like to have choice.”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
