Mc Naughton was fired BEFORE he became a DIS employee...Disney-Infoseek Venture: It's a Go! - Justice,
FTC - Update <br>Newsbytes - September 24, 1999
15:40<br>WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1999 SEP 24 (NB) -- By Robert
MacMillan and David McGuire, Newsbytes. (Note: Adds more
comments from Disney Online.) The Justice Department and
Federal Trade Commission have approved Infoseek Corp.'s
and the Walt Disney Co.'s [NYSE:DIS] plans to merge
the Buena Vista Internet Group with Infoseek to
create the new company go.com. <br><br>The two companies
are seeking to cement a relationship that already was
grounded in Disney's 43 percent ownership stake in
Infoseek, one of the nation's more popular search engines.
<br><br>Disney's stake in Infoseek, which now maintains the go.com
search engine and portal service, is expected to
increase to 72 percent. <br><br>Government officials had
no comment on the merger approval. Infoseek
officials were not immediately available for comment.
<br><br>Disney estimates that the new company will generate
roughly $350 million in revenues on a pro forma basis for
the current fiscal year. But only about $200 million
of that will come from Internet-related businesses,
according to Disney. The remaining $150 million in revenue
will be generated by the Disney catalog. <br><br>The
catalog operation is being included in the new company
because Disney executives believe that traditional
catalog customers will increasingly use the Internet for
transactions, Disney spokesperson Christine Castro told
Newsbytes. <br><br>Infoseek's Go Network is home to a
handful of popular Internet sites, including
<a href=http://ESPN.go.com target=new>http://ESPN.go.com</a> and <a href=http://mrshowbiz.go.com target=new>http://mrshowbiz.go.com</a> . <br><br>Disney's
Buena Vista Internet Group has been instrumental in
developing a bevy of innocuous entertainment and news sites,
including <a href=http://www.disney.com target=new>http://www.disney.com</a> and <a href=http://www.family.com target=new>http://www.family.com</a> -
both of which are part of the Go Network. <br><br>The
proposed merger is subject to shareholder approval and is
expected to close before the end of 1999, Castro said.
<br><br>She added that there are no layoffs planned.
<br><br>The two companies recently ran into some trouble
because of one of Infoseek's top executives, Patrick
Naughton, who was arrested for crossing state lines to have
sex with a minor. Naughton was apprehended after
engaging in Internet-based correspondence with two ersatz
minors, who in fact were undercover agents for the FBI.
<br><br>Infoseek fired Naughton, and Disney claimed no
responsibility for the actions of a "non-employee."
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