AOL Time Warner latest to open books to SEC

NEWS An admission by top brass at AOL Time Warner that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking a close look at the company's books has over-shadowed fair quarterly results figures. A series of allegations in articles in the Washington Post last week, in the wake of financial impropriety at several media and communications firms, prompted the SEC probe. However, while many will see this as an investigation, AOL Time Warner has called it a "fact finding inquiry". Nevertheless, the news helped push AOL-TW shares over six per cent lower in after hours trading on Wall Street last night. At issue is whether the media giant booked some advertising as revenue, back in the days of the internet bubble, pre-merger. The news comes as AOL Time Warner returned to profit in its second quarter compared to 12 months ago, making $394m, on revenues that are 10 per cent up at $10.6bn. The deteriorating returns from the AOL internet unit have been offset by strong performance from traditional media businesses, especially the Warner Bros film division.