Paying back shareholders will take priority over purchases in 2009, top US media executives said on Wednesday, as the global economic crisis puts the brakes on deal-flow in one of the most acquisition-hungry sectors.
“We think first about what’s the appropriate [return] of capital to shareholders in the form of dividend yields and return of capitals through steady and predictable buy-backs,” said Jeffrey Bewkes, chief executive of Time Warner, at the annual UBS media conference. That could provide some comfort to shareholders of the owner of the Warner Bros movies studio and Turner cable networks, who have watched the company’s stock price sink since its 2001 takeover by AOL.
