FC: AOL to buy Time Warner in $350 billion merger

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

**********

[I will be on CNN at 12 noon et and CNN international at 1 pm et today
talking about this deal. --Declan]

**********

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,33531,00.html

                     AOL, Time Warner to Merge 
                     by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

                     7:15 a.m. 10.Jan.2000 PST 
                     America Online said Monday it was buying
                     entertainment colossus Time Warner in a
                     deal that will create the world's largest
                     media and online services company. 

                     AOL chairman and CEO Steve Case will be
                     chairman of the new firm, which will be
                     called AOL Time Warner and have a
                     market value of some US$350 billion. 

                     Although both companies say the deal is
                     a "merger of equals," AOL shareholders
                     will own about 55 percent of the new
                     corporation, with the rest going to Time
                     Warner shareholders. 

                     The company created by the all-stock
                     deal will be traded under the symbol AOL
                     on the New York Stock Exchange and
                     headed by Gerald Levin, Time Warner
                     chairman and CEO. 

                     It would allow the new technology titan
                     to easily leap ahead of its rivals in traffic
                     rankings, beating out Yahoo.com, which
                     currently tops the Media Metrix list at
                     35,400,000 unique visitors a month. The
                     combo of AOL and Time Warner's most
                     popular sites totals over 44,200,000
                     visitors for November 1999. 

                     The move has already drawn a rush of
                     investors to the companies on Monday,
                     both of which have seen their stock
                     languish in recent months. Time Warner,
                     which closed Friday at 64 3/4, had not
                     managed to best its 52-week high of 78
                     5/8 from last spring, and AOL's closing
                     price of 73 3/4 is about 10 points lower
                     than its May 1999 value. 

                     [...]




--------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
To subscribe: send a message to majordomo () vorlon mit edu with this text:
subscribe politech
More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------