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

To: ANANT who wrote (40490)	12/10/2000 12:29:45 PM
From: ANANT	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 41369

From Money Central Investor, December 10, 2000 America Online/Time Warner (AOL 46.10 +2.55) (TWX 69.85 +3.86): The Washington Post reports that AOL and Time Warner have essentially closed their case with antitrust regulators and will offer no further concessions before the commission votes, which is expected to happen Wednesday or Thursday of next week. Since our last Story Stock on the proposed merger, there has been increasing concern that the deal will not go through due to the companies' refusal to grant concessions regarding access to Time Warner content for other ISPs. The initial concerns from the FTC regarding access to Time Warner's cable lines seem to have dissipated after the signing of deals with Juno Online (JWEB) and EarthLink (ELNK). Numerous sources have reported that the FTC has made new demands for concessions regarding access to Time Warner's content. Access to Time Warner's content is the reason Steve Case and company went after the publishing giant in the first place. Being forced to allow competitors equal access to Time Warner content is a deal breaker. The companies' lawyers contend that because Time Warner does not hold a market share position of over 20% in any one content category, the conditions of monopoly do not apply. The Post reports that only two members of the five-person commission are really considering the content issue a sticking point. If that is the case, the merger has a strong likelihood of being approved, as a simple three-vote majority will allow the combination. Nixing the deal on the content issue would be difficult for the FTC to defend, and we expect that clearance will finally be granted by late next week, thus removing a considerable overhang on AOL shares. - Matt Gould, Briefing.com