Gerald M. Levin, the media executive who orchestrated the disastrous merger of Time Warner and AOL, died Wednesday. He was 84.
Levin’s grandchild Jake Maia Arlow confirmed his death to the New York Times, saying that Levin died in a hospital and lived in Long Beach, Calif. While a cause of death was not disclosed, Levin had battled Parkinson’s disease since being diagnosed in 2006.
Levin was Time Warner’s chief executive when he and then-AOL CEO Steve Case devised the merger of the two companies. The deal was announced on Jan. 10, 2000, at the height of the dot-com bubble, and created AOL Time Warner.
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