TimeWarner settles charges for £158m

MEDIA conglomerate Time Warner has agreed to pay $300m (£158m) and restate three years of financial results to settle civil fraud charges brought by watchdog the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The case stemmed from the company's accounting of online advertising revenues and subscriber counts at its AOL unit. Time Warner will also open its books to an independent examiner.

The company agreed last December to pay $210m to resolve criminal securities fraud charges made after a separate investigation by the Department of Justice. The settlement is the latest and, Time Warner hopes, the last fallout from the company's disastrous merger with internet firm AOL in 200. Time Warner stock is now about 75% below what it was at the time of the takeover.

The company's chief executive, Dick Parsons, said the company was pleased to have resolved the investigation, and was committed to co-operating with the independent examiner and to fulfilling its other obligations under the settlement with the SEC.

The SEC had accused Time Warner of fraud, including inflating its own online advertising revenues with 'round-trip' transactions in which it essentially provided other companies with the means to buy online advertising, and of overstating the number of AOL subscribers.