Turner Turns Cold to Deal With HSN : Television: After board meeting, TBS abandons merger talks with Home Shopping Network, sources say.

Turner Broadcasting System has abandoned merger discussions with Home Shopping Network, according to industry sources.

The decision came at a Turner board meeting Friday. Sources say Time Warner Inc., a Turner shareholder, opposed the idea of buying the electronic retailer because the stock-swap deal would have shifted the balance of power within Turner to Tele-Communications Inc., another Turner shareholder.

Home Shopping Network is controlled by a TCI affiliate, Liberty Media Corp.

TCI and Time Warner are part of the group of cable TV operators that acquired a large stake in Turner in the late 1980s when the company ran into financial trouble. “It was Ted’s idea,” the executive said, referring to Turner Chief Executive Ted Turner. “But Time Warner never bought into it.”

The asking price for HSN was not disclosed. Turner was apparently interested in the network not only for its core home shopping business, but also because of the company’s link to Silver King Communications, which owns 12 UHF television stations that operate as HSN affiliates. The stations, many of them in large cities, could serve as a launch pad for a broadcast network.

From HSN’s standpoint, Turner would have made a good partner because of the ability to cross-promote HSN on Turner’s cable TV networks such as CNN and TBS, as well as the economies of scale that could have been achieved by merging HSN with Turner’s marketing, affiliate relations and advertising departments.

In addition, HSN would have been able to sell merchandise connected with the growing Turner entertainment empire, which includes the Atlanta Braves baseball and Hawks basketball teams, cartoon characters such as Yogi Bear and the Jetsons, and paraphernalia from the company’s large library of movie classics.

Another source said the Turner board was also uneasy about the deal because of the growing disparity in the two companies’ stock prices. Turner stock has been trading at a 52-week low of about $19 a share, which would have meant that more TBS shares would have to have been exchanged for HSN shares. However, the source did not rule out an eventual deal.