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Friday, May 4 8:07 AM SGT

AOL Time Warner to seek international dominance through acquisitions

SAN FRANCISCO, May 3 (AFP) -

AOL Time Warner Inc chairman Steve Case on Thursday outlined his vision to transform his 219 billion dollar media conglomerate into an even bigger player, aimed at sizably increasing revenues from outside the United States.

Speaking at JP Morgan HQ's technology conference here, Case said he wanted AOL to move from being a "US company with some foreign outposts" to become a truly global player through a series of "aggressive" acquisitions and investments.

"International is the big one," he said.

"I really do think that in the next five to 10 years you will see that we are really serious about becoming a truly global company. You are going to see more aggressive investments and acquisitions," Case said.

He told investors and analysts that the next decade will see AOL -- which already dominates the US media industry -- move to a position where it gets half of its sales from international markets.

"Only 17 percent of revenues of AOL Time Warner today comes from outside the United States. That is going to change," he said."The next decade is going to be about global expansion our target is to have half of our revenue coming from outside the United States."

The media giant, created through the merger of AOL Inc and Time Warner Inc. earlier this year, is already the biggest company in its industry with a market capitalization of 219 billion dollars and expected sales of 40 billion dollars for 2001.

The group has a leading presence in almost every part of the US media sector through a vast array of businesses, which include Warner Bros, Time Warner Cable, Warner Music and AOL.

Case acknowledged that the group's expansion would not come easily, noting that a big change in the culture of both AOL and Time Warner would be required to see it through. "We need to be thinking less and less like an American company and more like a global company," he said. "We have a high mountain to climb but I am reasonably confident we're going to get to the top."

-- Swissrose (cellier3@mindspring.com), May 04, 2001