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To: Rob C. who wrote (22621)	5/25/2000 5:59:00 PM
From: FR1	Respond to of 29970

below is another news article on the merger. My favorite lines: Until that time, AT&T will be required to keep management of Road Runner separate from the rest of the company. The company also will be allowed to keep any assets that are used primarily for providing cable Internet service, and can move the subscribers to the Excite@Home service. yahoo.cnet.com DOJ: AT&T must sell cable modem service to merge By John Borland Staff Writer, CNET News.com May 25, 2000, 2:15 p.m. PT just in U.S. antitrust regulators agreed to approve AT&T's merger with cable giant MediaOne today, under a complicated set of rules that will force the companies to sell off the Road Runner high-speed cable Net service. AT&T agreed to merge with MediaOne a year ago, in a deal that will make it unambiguously the largest cable TV company in the United States. But opponents had objected, saying that the merger would give AT&T, which also controls Excite@Home, too much control over the cable TV and cable Internet business. Under the terms of a consent decree with the Department of Justice today, AT&T agreed to sell off MediaOne's stake in Road Runner no later than Dec. 31, 2000. AT&T would own 37 percent of Road Runner when the merger is completed. MediaOne and Time Warner are joint owners of the Road Runner service. Until that time, AT&T will be required to keep management of Road Runner separate from the rest of the company. The company also will be allowed to keep any assets that are used primarily for providing cable Internet service, and can move the subscribers to the Excite@Home service. The divestiture plan had been expected for some months, after word leaked that AT&T had proposed shedding one of the cable modem services. "The Road Runner divestiture is an obligation we always assumed we would face, and the decree proposes both a schedule and process that are fair and feasible," said AT&T General Counsel Jim Cicconi. "Before and after that divestiture, we will remain fully able to roll out new broadband capabilities--including high-speed Internet access--to our subscribers. As a part of the agreement, AT&T also will have to win prior DOJ approval any time it wants to join with Time Warner, or the merged America Online-Time Warner company, to offer any kind of home high-speed Internet service. Approval would also be needed if the companies agreed that one or the other would not offer service in any region. The DOJ said it would approve these requests unless it determined the companies' agreement would lessen competition between the two giants. The company also requires approval by the Federal Communications Commission, which said early this month would happen in "a matter of days."