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[I will be on CNN at 12 noon et and CNN international at 1 pm et today
talking about this deal. --Declan]
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http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,33531,00.html
AOL, Time Warner to Merge
by Declan McCullagh ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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.
[...]
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