Chairman of Live Quits as Merger Nears

Live Entertainment Inc. said Wednesday that its chairman has resigned and has been replaced by a temporary management team that will head the company until Live’s pending merger with Carolco Pictures Inc. is completed.

Wayne H. Patterson, the former Pace Membership Warehouse chairman who joined Live in April, 1990, resigned “in view of organizational changes which Live intends to make” in connection with the merger, Live said.

Patterson could not be reached for comment. Live said Patterson would act as an independent consultant to the company through November, 1992.

Live, a Van Nuys home-video concern, has agreed to merge with Carolco in a complicated stock swap that will give Live shareholders a minimum of $14 worth of stock in the combined companies for each Live share they own. Carolco, the Los Angeles-based producer of the blockbuster film “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” owns 53% of Live.

Alan J. Hirschfield, a Live director and co-chief executive of Infotechnology Inc. and Financial News Network Inc., has replaced Patterson as acting chairman, Live said. FNN and its 46% owner, Infotechnology, filed for bankruptcy protection in March. FNN was subsequently acquired by NBC’s Consumer News and Business Channel for $145 million.

Hirschfield was formerly chief executive of 20th Century Fox Film Corp. and Columbia Pictures Entertainment Inc. He is on a leave of absence from the investment banking firm Wertheim Schroder & Co., where he is a managing director.

Hirschfield is part of an “interim management committee” that will oversee Live’s operations in conjunction with the company’s “operations review committee,” headed by Cy Leslie, a Live director and former chairman of MGM/UA Home Entertainment. Also on the interim management team is Anthony J. Scotti, a Live director and chairman of All American Communications Inc., a film and television production company.

Carolco Chairman Mario F. Kassar is widely expected to assume control of the combined companies when the merger is completed.