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Technology Stocks : America On-Line (AOL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: puborectalis who wrote (40153)	9/22/2000 2:51:40 AM
From: 2MAR$	Respond to of 41369

AOL, Time Warner offer EU formal concessions -paper WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - America Online Inc <AOL.N> and Time Warner Inc <TWX.N> have given European officials a formal set of concessions to win approval of their $183 billion merger, the Washington Post reported Friday. The paper quoted sources who have reviewed a document on the concessions as saying that AOL, the world's largest Internet provider, and entertainment giant Time Warner hoped to assure European regulators they will not use their combined market power over the Internet to discriminate against rivals. In the proposal, AOL tried to address the European Commission's concern the merged entity could dominate the delivery of online music through a combination of its vast Internet service and Time Warner's enormous music library. The Post said the firms agreed the combined firm "specifically will not distribute its music exclusively through any ISP (Internet service provider) affiliated with AOL." It said the proposal does not explicitly forbid AOL from excluding unaffiliated content from its proprietary online service, nor does it prevent AOL from giving third-party content less favorable treatment on its service. The Post said AOL submitted the final proposal in advance of the Sunday deadline set by the commission, which has played a key role in scuttling several other deals both in the United States and Europe, including the recently proposed merger between recent WorldCom Inc. <WCOM.O> and Sprint Corp <FON.N>. The commission had not yet responded formally to AOL's proposal, which will be circulated to interested third parties and EU member states in the next few days for comment. A ruling is expected by the European Commission no later than Oct. 24. In its proposal, AOL pledged that for three years following the merger it will not force content providers to sign up with an AOL-affiliated Internet service provider in Europe as a condition of "entering into a content carriage deal for its U.S. online service," the Post reported. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday its staff had yet to make any recommendations to the five commissioners on whether to approve AOL's purchase of Time Warner. REUTERS * end of story *