TECHNOLOGY & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Times Mirror, Pacific Telesis Terminate Venture: Times Mirror Co. and Pacific Telesis Group said they ended a joint venture formed in 1994 to offer electronic shopping by phone, and will instead develop those services on their own through the Internet. Times Mirror said the Internet computer network was quickly outmoding the partnership’s venture, which would have enabled customers from Southern California to call telephone shopping assistants to find a product or a store close to their home. The partners had created a set of databases drawing from classified and editorial information in Times Mirror’s Los Angeles Times newspaper and from phone directories provided by the San Francisco-based telecommunications company. Pacific Telesis will absorb most of the assets from the partnership, called ESS Ventures, and apply them to its Tele-TV service, which it formed with two other telephone companies.