Jerry Levin, who sold Time Warner for AOL shares inflated by the dotcom boom, has marked the 10th anniversary of the disastrous $164bn deal with a call for today's corporate titans to accept responsibility for the recent financial crisis.

The former Time Warner chief executive, having avoided apologising for the billions of dollars destroyed by the deal, yesterday made a belated mea culpa. He told CNBC that he was sorry for the “pain and suffering and loss” caused by the merger.

“I presided over the worst deal of the century, apparently, and I guess it's time for those who are involved in companies to stand up and say: you know what, I'm solely responsible for it,” said Mr Levin. “I was in charge. I'm really very sorry about the pain and the suffering and loss that was caused. I take responsibility.”