COMPANY TOWN : Musical Chairs

Time Warner’s Warner Music Group has been rocked by executive exodus, controversies and other tumult in the past year. Some highlights:

July, 1994: Elektra Entertainment Chairman Robert Krasnow, a 13-year Warner Atlantic veteran, quits the day after Warner Music Group Chairman Robert Morgado announces a new chain of command.

August, 1994: Following a corporate battle with Morgado, Mo Ostin, who ran Warner Bros. Records for three lucrative decades, announces he will quit the label when his contract expires on Dec. 31, 1994.

October, 1994: Fed up with the corporate war, Lenny Waronker, former Warner Bros. Records president, rejects an offer from Time Warner to take Ostin’s job and announces he will leave the company when his contract expires. Later that month, Doug Morris is elevated to chairman of Warner’s domestic sector, leaving Morgado in charge only of international operations. Morgado appoints Danny Goldberg to take over Ostin’s job at Warner Bros. Records.

November, 1994: Morris initiates an internal probe that results in the dismissals of sales chief Nick Maria and nine other employees between December and March after the alleged theft and sale without authorization to retailers of thousands of Atlantic compact discs.

May, 1995: Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin ousts Morgado. Sources say Morgado’s firing is due to repeated complaints from Morris and other executives about Morgado’s continued interference in the domestic operation. Morgado is replaced by HBO chief Michael Fuchs, an executive with no experience in the music business. On the day of his promotion, Fuchs tells reporters he is counting on Morris to help him guide the record sector. Later that month, Time Warner is attacked by Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and others for profiting from potentially offensive pop music.

June, 1995: Fuchs abruptly fires Morris, just two days before he is to be promoted to chief executive of the global music sector.

July, 1995: Fuchs and Levin put a full-court press on Ostin and Waronker to return to Time Warner and fill senior executive posts in the music division in the wake of Morris’ firing. Meanwhile, reacting to political pressure, Time Warner’s attorneys begin negotiations to sever ties with Westwood-based Interscope Records, home of controversial “gangsta” rap music.

August, 1995: Fuchs abruptly fires Melvyn R. Lewinter, president and chief operating officer of its domestic music sector. Fuchs is expected to announce the resignation of Goldberg, who sources say will be replaced by Russ Thyret. Time Warner is likely to announce that it plans to sell off its 50% stake in Interscope.