Company Town : Time Warner’s Bert Wasserman Will Retire

Time Warner confirmed Monday that Bert W. Wasserman will retire at the end of the year as executive vice president and chief financial officer.

The move had been rumored for weeks amid reports that Wasserman--one of a dwindling number of Time Warner senior executives who had close links to the late Chairman Steven J. Ross--had a falling-out with current Time Warner Chief Executive Gerald M. Levin.

Wasserman, 62, spent 28 years at Time Warner and predecessor Warner Communications, serving as a board member of the company from 1990 to 1993. The company said a search is under way for his replacement and that it “doesn’t have a name to put forward now.” The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that the favorite candidate was Stephen L. Key, chief financial officer of ConAgra Inc.

* Time Warner’s Atlantic Records unit made official the naming of Ron Shapiro as senior vice president and West Coast general manager.

Shapiro, most recently vice president of media and artist relations, replaces Paul Cooper, who last week was named vice president of Warner Music-U.S.

* Walt Disney Television & Telecommunications named Dean Valentine president of network television.

* Hachette Filipacchi’s film office division named Franck Ribiere director of television development and acquisitions.

* Matt Tolmach was named vice president of production for Turner Pictures Worldwide.

* Victoria Rosellini was named vice president of legal affairs for 20th Century Fox.

* Kate Barker and Nina Jacobson were promoted to senior vice presidents of production for Universal Pictures.

* Carla Fry was named vice president of production for New Line Productions.

* Walt Disney’s Buena Vista Pictures Marketing named Dean Hallett vice president of finance and administration.

* Joseph A. Fischer, executive vice president of MCA’s Motion Picture Group, was named a director of Harvey Entertainment Co., which is 10.6%-owned by MCA.

* Mitch McDiffett has been promoted to vice president of financial planning and analysis at Sony Pictures Entertainment Television Group. He previously was a director of budgeting and forecasting.

* Marvel Entertainment Group Inc. said it promoted Executive Vice President Jeffrey Kaplan to the new post of president and chief operating officer of its trading card company Fleer Entertainment Group Inc.

* Gregory Clark was named president of the News Technology Group for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.