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Article: Vanity, insanity and fear.(Time-Warner Ted Turner and Barry Diller attempt to build media giants in opposite ways)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 2, 1995
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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WHAT is the best way to build a successful media business? One week has offered two answers: the big-bang approach and the softly, softly one. The big bang came from Time Warner, a loss-making media giant with debts of $15 billion. It is contemplating the purchase of Turner Broadcasting System (TBS), a cable-TV group led by Ted Turner, for $8.5 billion in shares. Softly, softly is Barry Diller, Hollywood's most bankable executive, who on August 25th announced that he had bought control of Silver King Communications, a Florida-based company that owns 12 obscure TV stations and 27 even smaller ones in the nether regions of America's UHF band.
The Time Warner deal, if ...