New York: AOL Time Warner has said it lost $ 54.2 billion in the first quarter, the biggest quarterly loss in US corporate history.

The loss was reflected by new accounting rules, and a slide in the value of the merger of AOL and Time Warner, a corporate marriage that created one of the world's largest media conglomerates.

The huge loss, equal to the gross national products of countries like Uruguay or Bulgaria, was expected, but reflects a stunning reversal for the media giant.

Losses for the quarter were 12.25 per basic share.

The company said revenues for the quarter grew by four per cent over the same quarter in 2001, to $ 9.8 billion. The company said it had subscription revenues increases of 14 per cent in the quarter, from subscriber fee growth in AOL and its cable television businesses. But advertising and commerce revenues for the media company's other properties dropped 13 per cent to $ 1.8 billion, "reflecting weakness in the overall advertising market", the company stated.

Two years ago, the combined market value of AOL and Time Warner was $ 290 billion. At market close on April 24, the merged companies stock was valued at just over $ 86 billion. The company's stock value has declined roughly 41 per cent this year.

AOL Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons said in a statement that, "the performances of our businesses remains at least as strong as we expected when we provided our earlier outlook, and we anticipate that they will collectively drive growth this year".