Weinstein Co. Not Looking for New CEO

Apparently, Weinstein Company board member Tarak Ben Ammar (CEO of Quinta Communications) got a little confused when recently speaking to Fortune writer Tim Arango. Ammar had said that the Weinstein Co. was looking for a new CEO to oversee the company. According to Variety, Ammar was actually asking for a replacement for Charles Layton, who held the title of exec VP, office of the chairman. The official word is that the Weinsteins are not searching for a CEO, but have already been looking for a replacement for Layton. But perhaps Ammar's statement was exactly what it seemed to be-- a shot across Harvey's bow, a way to implore him to refocus on the core business of film. Here's the graph with the quote from the Fortune piece:

"This fiscal year has been a disappointing one," says Tarak Ben Ammar, the Franco-Tunisian dealmaker and film producer who sits on the Weinstein Co.'s board of directors and whose firm, Quinta Communications, owns 3.3% of the 20-month-old company. "But a company is not built in one fiscal year ... Maybe we need to bring in a high-level CEO, but we'd need somebody who would be compatible with the market and investors and the brothers."

Ammar's quote does seem to be more speculative than simply a slip of the tongue about another position. But maybe his posturing worked. One read on the spin would be that the Weinstein Co. wants the world to know that they're already back on track. No new CEO needed here.