COMPANY TOWN ANNEX

TCI Chief Confident of Time Warner-Turner Merger: Despite objections expressed by the Federal Trade Commission to the deal between Time Warner Inc. and Turner Broadcasting System Inc., Tele-Communications Inc. Chairman John Malone said he believes the merger will be approved. “The people involved have enough flexibility to make the deal happen and enough backbone to fight the government,” Malone said in an interview. TCI, the nation’s largest cable system operator, is a major stockholder in Turner, and TCI’s programming arm, Liberty Media Group, has a stake in 90 cable programming ventures. Malone did not specify what he would be willing to do to win approval of the deal. But he said that TCI still intends to have a major role in the company. “I think we can satisfy the FTC’s concerns that we’re not going to take control of Time Warner,” Malone said, “but we’re not going to be a passive investor.” Separately, TCI said it will boost its stake in digital music programmer DMX Inc. to about 45% from 14% through a series of transactions.