NEW YORK – The Delaware Chancery Court has denied a petition from U S West Inc. to stop the merger of Time Warner Inc. and Turner Broadcasting System Inc.
U S West made a $2.5 billion investment in a strategic partnership with Time Warner called Time Warner Entertainment L.P. in early 1993. But after Time Warner proposed the Turner merger, U S West denounced it as being a potential competitor of Time Warner Entertainment and filed the lawsuit in September.
“We brought the lawsuit to protect the interests of our shareowners,” U S West said.
Despite the fact that the court denied U S West’s position, the company said the court “validated our belief that the acquisition carries numerous potential conflicts.”
“Our primary focus continues to be making the partnership work to the fullest possible extent for both our shareowners and Time Warner’s,” the company said.
Time Warner also put a positive spin on the judgement by saying, “We intend to put this matter behind us, and we look forward to continuing to work with U S West in pursuit of our shared telecommunications strategy.”
