US antitrust authorities today cleared America Online Inc.'s $109 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc. after the companies pledged to give Internet rivals greater access to their cable lines and content.
The combination of AOL, the world's largest Internet service provider, with the media and cable conglomerate Time Warner would create a vast company spanning movies, magazines, television programming and cyberspace.
A Federal Trade Commission spokesman said the five commissioners unanimously agreed to clear the deal, the biggest in U.S. history. It still faces the lower hurdle of gaining approval from the Federal Communications Commission.
The breadth of the deal has raised fears among regulators, competitors and consumer groups that AOL and Time Warner together would dominate the market for consumer high-speed Internet service and a vast array of news and entertainment programming.
The approval came after AOL and Time Warner made a last minute offer to increase competitors' use of cable lines and log complaints from rivals about obtaining Time Warner content.
The combined companies plan to be known as AOL Time Warner and have said they expect to close the combination by the end of December or in the early days of 2001.
The FTC regulatory approval did not come without a major fight and intense lobbying on the part of the two companies and their rivals over open access, the emerging interactive television service and programming content.
