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The news comes at a time when Time Warner is anxious to promote an atmosphere of stability in its company - and its stock market prospects. It's poised to open its long-awaited gigantic headquarters in Manhattan, an occasion which will give the company the start of what it hopes will be a fresh start, following two years of pandemonium.

The sales, first reported in the Washington Post, involve members of its board of directors being "heavy sellers of the company's stock this year."

Time Warner confirmed the insider selling.

Tricia Primrose, a Time Warner spokeswoman, said the directors who have shed shares lately have "all continued to (maintain) significant holdings in Time Warner. Each is pursuing some form of diversification, philanthropic giving or estate planning, resulting in the sales of shares or exercising options."

The Post noted that four Time Warner directors have sold more than 68 million shares, while one director bought 1 million shares.

Ted Turner has sold Time Warner stock (when the company was still calling itself AOL Time Warner) this year. He unloaded 13 million shares early this year, 60 million in May and 3 million in July. Turner, founder of CNN, still owns 40 million Time Warner shares.

Former Netscape head James Barksdale sold 556,000 shares but still owns more than 3.5 million. America Online stalwarts Miles Gilburne and Kenneth Novack have been selling shares throughout this year, in accordance with their abilities to exercise stock options.

The issue of the company's directors owning the shares has been contentious at times since America Online and Time Warner merged in January 2001. At the company's annual meeting that year in New York, shareholders expressed their displeasure at some board members' lack of support for the stock.

AOL Time Warner changed its name to Time Warner a few weeks ago, in an attempt to boost the prospects of both the America Online and Time Warner divisions.

The company plans to open early next year its Time Warner headquarters in New York's Columbus Circle section of Manhattan. The company's stock, after plunging throughout 2001 and 2002, has shown signs of life in recent months, rallying in line with the gains of the broad stock market.

Late Thursday, Univision (UVN: news, chart, profile), the leading U.S. Spanish-language broadcaster, produced a gain in quarterly profits, sparked by a double-digit leap in television revenue.

The Los Angeles-based company, which in September consummated the $3.2 billion takeover of Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. reported that its third-quarter profit rose to $42.2 million, or 16 cents per share, from $20.3 million, or 8 cents per share, a year before.

Its revenue rose to $321 million from $269.8 million in the year- before span, on the power of an 18 percent increase in TV net revenue to $283.9 million.

Univision added 18 cents to $32.98 and set the stage for a rally on Friday.