The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 12, 2000, Page A5, Image 5
AOL, Time Warner announce merger
by Seth Sutel
Associated Press
New York — Time Warner, the world’s
largest media and entertainment compa
ny, is being acquired by America On
line for about $166 billion in stock in
what would be the biggest corporate merg
er ever.
The merger, announced Monday,
marks the biggest bet yet that the Inter
net will be one of the most dominant fea
tures in the media landscape of the fu
ture.
“This merger will launch the next In
ternet revolution,” America Online’s
chairman and chief executive, Steve Case,
said at a news conference.
“This really completes the digital
transformation of Time Warner,” Time
Warner’s chairman, Gerald Levin, said
this morning. “These two companies are
a natural fit.”
At a time when traditional media com
panies are struggling to reinvent their In
ternet strategies, the meiger would give
Time Warner a huge and powerful plat
form for reaching people online. AOL is
the nation’s laigest online company with
some 20 million subscribers.
The deal also gives AOL a key tool
for distributing its services: access to Time
Wimer’s laige cable network system, the
nation’s second laigest after AT&T’s with
13 million cable subscribers.
“It makes a lot of sense,” said Tom
Wolzien, a media analyst at Sanford C.
Bernstein & Co. “AOL provides a huge
platform for all of Time Warner’s con
tent, and Tune Warner’s cable systems
provide a good network for AOL’s online
services.”
Time Winner’s large list of media prop
erties includes CNN, HBO, Time, Peo
ple and Sports Illustrated magazines, and
' the Winner Bros, movie, TV and music
properties.
The deal also raises the stakes in the
consolidation scramble in the media in
dustry and comes just four months after
another blockbuster media meiger, the
proposed combination of CBS Corp. and
Viacom Inc.
The deal values Time Wkner at about
$ 110 a share, a rich premium of 71 per
cent over its price of $64.75 a share late
Friday. Time Whmer shares soared after
the news was announced, trading at $94.68
3/4, up $29.93 3/4, or by 46 percent, on
the New York Stock Exchange by this af
temoon. And in a sign that investors feel
the deal is a good one for AOL, that com
pany’s shares rose $1.75 to $75.50, also
on the NYSE.
Other Internet and entertainment
stocks also got a lift on anticipation of
other deals. Among them, Walt Disney
jumped $3.87 1/2 to $35 by this after
noon on the NYSE, while Lycos leaped
$5.31 1/4 to $76.06 1/4 and Yahoo!
climbed $28.68 3/4 to $435.62 1/2 on
the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Time Whmer was created by the 1990
merger of Warner Communications
Inc. and Time Inc. Time magazine was
launched in 1923 by two Yale students,
Henry Luce and Briton Hadden, and Warn
er Bros, was incorporated about the same
time.
America Online was founded in 1985
kid has more than four times the net prof
it of Time Whmer, earning $762 million
in the fiscal year that ended June 30, even
though Time Warner’s revenues of $26.8
billion dwarf AOL’s $4.8 billion.
AOL shareholders would own 55 per
cent of the combined company, which
will be called AOL Time Warner Inc.
Time Warner shareholders will own the
rest. AOL and Tune Warner would each
name half of the board of directors of the
new company.
Case would be chairman and Time
Warner’s Levin would be chief execu
tive. Case said he first approached Levin
about a possible combination in October.
The new media giant would have com
bined annual revenue of over $30 billion.
The biggest U.S. deal ever before to
MERQER see page A6
INS: No plans to force
Elian to return to Cuba
by Alex Veiga
Associated Press
Miami — The Immigration and Natu
ralization Service said Tuesday it has no
plans to forcibly return Elian Gonzalez
to Cuba in the wake of a state judge’s de
cision to grant emergency custody of the
6-year-old boy to his great-uncle in Mi
ami.
The INS last week ruled that the boy’s
father in Cuba should have custody, and
gave a target date of this Friday for his re
turn. The ruling was endorsed by Presi
dent Clinton and Attorney General Janet
Reno.
On Monday, Miami-Dade County
Circuit Judge Rosa Rodriguez ruled
that Elian should remain with his U.S.
relatives until March 6 so the court can
hear arguments from Lazaro Gonzalez,
his great-uncle, who is seeking tempo
rary custody.
“We have no plans to take charge
of him, and we have no plans to
forcibly remove him from the home,”
INS spokesman Mike Gilhooly said to
day in Miami.
INS officials in Washington said the
notion of suddenly removing the boy from
his great-uncle’s care was never an op
tion.
“We have never, from the very be
ginning, considered forcibly taking this
child into custody,” INS spokesman Russ
Beigeron said.
The INS was reviewing the judge’s
ruling to see what effect it has on the
agency’s decision last week to return Elian
to his father in Cuba, Beigeron said. The
agency may release a statement later
today, he said.
In Miami, Spencer Eig, an attorney
for the boy’s great-uncle said lawyers
planned to refile a petition today seek
ing political asylum for Elian. An initial
petition was withdrawn last week after
the INS ruling.
In her ruling Monday, Rodriguez said
the boy’s Miami relatives had shown that
Elian would face “imminent and ir
reparable harm” if he were returned to
Cuba, including the “loss of due process
Euan see page a6
Primakov will not
run, key ally says
by Sergei
Shargorodsy
Associated Press
MOSCOW — Former Premier Yevge
ny Primakov, seen as the only poten
tial competitor for acting President
Vladimir Putin in upcoming presiden
tial elections, has no intention of run
ning, a key ally said Tuesday.
“I’m aware of Primakov’s per
sonal stance in tliis issue,” said Agrar
ian Party leader Mikhail Lapshin. “We
proceed horn the notion that the name
of Primakov will be absent from the
ballots.”
If Primakov does not run, Putin is
expected to easily win the March 26
presidential elections. Communist leader
__-_-............—--i
Gennady Zyuganov and two other
minor candidates are given little chance
of winning.
Putin has a huge lead in opinion
polls. Many Russians admire his strong
leadership and are hungry for a
young, energetic president after years
of stagnation under Boris Yeltsin,
who resigned Dec. 31.
Lapshin, speaking at a meeting of
top party officials, did not say what con
siderations prompted Primakov to aban
don the race, the Interfax news agency
reported There was no comment from
Primakov on the reports.
The 70-year-old Primakov had said
he would run for president, but that was
when elections wot scheduled for June
News Briefs
■ Report: Stabilizing
ropes were cut before
A&M bonfire
collapsed
College Station, Texas (AP) — St
bilizing ropes were removed hours bt
fore a stack of bonfire logs collapsed;
Texas A&M University in a deadly acc
dent last fall, according to a new repor
Four of eight ropes used to stabiliz
the center pole within the 60-foot stac
were cut free from the pole two to thre
hours before the collapse that killed 1
students, according to the report by Roge
Engineering Services released on Mor
day.
The report, which relied in part o
photographs taken before the collapsi
also said the logs in the first tier appeare
to be leaning as they were stacked ne;
to the center pole.
The report does not cite the sourc
of the rope information or the reason tl
ropes were cut. The report does not suj
gest the ropes or the stack’s first tier cause
the collapse.
■ Clinton plans to
announce candidacy
in February
Rochester, N.Y. (AP)—Hillary Ro
ham Clinton said Tuesday she will fo
mally announce her Senate candidacy:
early February and hopes to have the pre
ident and daughter Chelsea at her sid
“That’s my timetable,” the first lac
said when asked if she planned to mai
it official next month. “It will take a whi
to get everybody organized to do it,” si
said.
Mrs. Clinton, who confirmed in N<
vember that she intended to run. said ti
day she wanted her husband and daugl
ter on hand for the historic announcemer
No first lady has ever run for public o
fice.
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