As the CEO of a publicly traded company, Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes is, as he protested to Portfolio's Lloyd Grove, obligated to consider strategic acquisitions as they become available. So he had to say, when Grove asked, that he'd consider buying NBC Universal if GE decided to spin off the media company. But he didn't have to so mildly rebuke speculation he was "intrigued" by such a deal, or go on at such length about the possibility:

"A complete structural separation of Time Warner Cable, under the right circumstances, is in the best interests of both companies' shareholders," Time Warner CEO Jeffrey L. Bewkes said in a statement this morning. The company will now rest much of its hopes on AOL's online advertising business. Yes, the one that grew 1 percent last year. [NYT]

In internet land, everybody's very excited about the Redmond software giant's bid for Jerry Yang's languishing internet directory. Where would a combination leave AOL? (Answer: without an obvious acquirer or partner.) What about the challenge to Google? (Finally, a competitor, financed by Microsoft's profits from its bloated operating system and office applications.) Most of the commentary is overblown. Fusing two mediocre internet units, Microsoft's MSN and Yahoo, will not magically produce a dynamic challenger to Google; merely, if business precedent is any guide, mediocrity on a greater scale. Unfortunately, the petrified traditional media companies don't know that. (They don't know anything really.) And that's why the creation of another internet behemoth would be so pernicious.

Jeffrey Bewkes begins work today as chief executive of Time Warner, the world's biggest old-school media conglomerate. One person who won't be celebrating Bewkes' ascension is Ron Grant, who runs day-to-day operations at Time Warner's internet division, AOL, which is downtown New York's biggest internet business since the headquarters moved from Virginia. Grant, an AOL veteran who masterminded some of the sketchier deals of the last internet boom but returned from disgrace, is so brainy that he's been nicknamed "the human computer". But the new Time Warner boss doesn't rate his mechanical exec's managerial competence. Grant is pictured here: better grab hold of that handrail.

Add one more to the AOL body count. At AOL's parent company, Time Warner, CEO Richard Parsons will soon resign, according to reports of a board meeting in London last week. But we all know it's not official till there's a drunken layoff-victim email. The axe drops after Parsons led Time Warner through five years of stagnant growth. His problem, according to some, was a sentimental attachment to the failed AOL-Time Warner union. Parsons's reported replacement, current Time Warner president Jeff Bewkes is not considered so sentimental. His ascension would increase the likelihood of an AOL spinoff or sale. We say Parsons isn't allowed to go till he makes his own French music video. (Photo by AP/Stephen J. Carrera)

Time Warner President Jeffrey Bewkes, heir apparent to CEO Richard Parsons, should be having a great week. The company's annual stockholders meeting happens today in sunny Burbank, and Bewkes is expected to be formally announced as the guy who gets the gig. But that pesky Chris Albrecht thing—the former HBO honcho whose fists did some allegedly excessive hugging on his girlfriend's neck outside a casino in Vegas—keeps coming up in the press. And for good reason! It wasn't the first time!