DRUDGE REPORT 2002®
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 10, 2002 17:29:40 ET XXXXX
CNNABCNEWS MERGE COULD BE BY JANUARY; TROUBLED AOLTIMEWARNER MAY DELAY
Get ready for the biggest, baddest news organization the world has ever seen. Where Peter Jennings will share with Larry King who will share with Diane Sawyer who will pair with Amanpour with a dare from Barabra Walters.
Will we care?
The marriage between CNN and ABC NEWS could be ready to go as soon as January, according to a high-impact report set for launch from Bill Carter and Jim Rutenberg.
But new questions have sprouted over whether the leadership at AOLTIMEWARNER would delay any deal as it coped with other issues roiling the company.
"The board may be a little gun-shy for various reasons," one executive involved in the discussions said. "Not because they think it's a bad deal. I'm just not sure they want to take on a big, potentially controversial deal right now."
The plan, as it has been worked out by the two sides, would be to form a new entity, a joint venture to manage the two news operations: Two-thirds owned by AOLTIMEWARNER, a third owned by ABC parent DISNEY. But each news operation would maintain its own identity.
The entity would have a single management structure and would be overseen by a board that, under one possible plan, would be composed of two officers from DIS and two from AOL.
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Filed By Matt Drudge
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