Time Warner Extends CEO Jeff Bewkes Until 2020, Notes 162% Shareholder Return Since Taking Over

Shares of

were trading higher by nearly 2 percent early Friday morning after the company

a three-year contract extension with its Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes. Bewkes was named Chairman and CEO of Time Warner in 2009. Since then, the executive oversaw a total shareholder return of 162 percent. The new contract will extend his employment agreement through 2020. "The Board of Directors is delighted that Jeff has agreed to extend his employment agreement for another three years," said Steve Bollenbach, the Company's Lead Independent Director. "Since becoming CEO, Jeff has transformed the company to focus on video content, capitalized on the combined strength of Turner, HBO, and Warner Bros., and delivered consistently strong operating and financial performance." Bollenbach continued: "More importantly, Jeff has developed and is executing the right long-term strategy for our company in a changing media landscape: one that uses the scale of our film and television businesses not just to create compelling video content that appeals to an increasingly diverse, worldwide audience, but also to lead the industry in developing innovative ways of distributing that content to consumers on both traditional and emerging platforms.