This loss is a lot of paper accounting. T/W stock was at all time highs when the economy took a turn south and now its worth a lot less. You know bill gates is the richest man on earth - on paper. If all these people had to turn that stock into greenbacks they wouldn't be nearly as rich. Bill gates would still be the richest although because we're all using computers.
The following is from MSNBC 4/24/02:
AOL Time Warner’s loss was almost entirely due to a writedown because of a sharp decline in the company’s stock, which has fallen by more than half since the merger of America Online and Time Warner announced in January of 2000. In the same period a year ago, AOL Time Warner had a net loss of $1.4 billion.
How do you LOSE $54.2 billion ???????? 
