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FCC Delays Vote on AOL/Time Warner Deal

Megamerger earned FTC approval, but the next step won't happen until after the new year.

By Joris Evers, IDG News   

America Online and Time Warner will have to wait until the new year for the final word from the Federal Communications Commission on their proposed merger, according to a report Thursday citing unnamed FCC staff.

FCC commissioners only received their staff's recommendations on the deal about two weeks ago, leaving the commission less than a month to meet the self-imposed deadline of New Year's Eve, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The Federal Trade Commission approved the transaction on December 14. Part of the delay occurred because the FCC was waiting for the FTC decision before completing its own review, the report says.

AOL last week told FCC staffers that delaying the decision would cause "substantial burden and expense," the Wall Street Journal reports. The company would have to change its accounting system and face added costs to complete regulatory filings and partial-year state and local tax returns.

AOL has said it expected to complete the merger by year's end or early 2001. The deal, currently valued at about $78 billion, was announced in January 2000.

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