Was Warner Bought and Paid For?

Warner of the Time Warner empire (TWX) delivered what many believe to be the death blow when it was announced that starting this summer they will release DVD's in the Blu-ray format. Obviously very good news for Sony (SNE) and not so good news for Toshiba (TOSBX). OK so this is supposed to bring to an end the format confusion of the market place.

Matt Hartley reporting in the Report on Business in an article printed of today's date filed from Las Vegas reported that unnamed industry analysts were speculating that Warner had been offered huge amounts of cash. Toshiba it was rumoured offered $100 million. Sony offered $400 million; which seems like the better deal. The article did go on to say that Warner declined to comment on whether it was offered money to pick sides.

Why cannot Time Warner investors know if they have been able to leverage their commanding position in the DVD market. If this is a one time payment the $100 million represents 10% of the last quarterly reported income. If its substantially more cash then the investor should know even more.

Time Warner needs to come clean with its own investors and let them know if wealth has been created.