Bring on the Jeff Bewkes Dismemberment Plan

Listen up, Time Warner: If you don't name a new CEO soon, I might just go ahead and name one for you.

Fortunately, it doesn't sound like it'll come to that. The Wall Street Journal and MSNBC are both reporting that Dick Parsons will hand off the baton to Jeff Bewkes either tomorrow or Wednesday, to coincide with the release of third-quarter earnings. The Journal adds that Parsons is expected to hang onto the title of chairman "at least" through May, when his current contract expires.

And after that? Well, for all Bewkes's intentions to maintain a certain strategic ambiguity about his ambitions, judging from the salivatory press coverage, if he doesn't break out the carving knife and start hacking off pieces by next summer, there's going to be a lot of disappointment on Wall Street.