Winners and Losers

The combination of America Online and Times Warner would reshape the media and technology jungle. Many would benefit but many would also suffer from those changes.

Winners

* Yahoo: Yahoo, as much as AOL, has become a signature brand name on the Internet, which makes it an attractive partner for old media. And who else has the market capitalization to buy a major media conglomerate?

* Big Content: Walt Disney, News Corp. and other media conglomerates saw the value of their television programming, film studios and other products affirmed.

* Online Content: WireBreak Entertainment, the Venice-based producer of Internet-only entertainment programming, along with other Southern California srat-ups that have bet on the Net becoming a mainstream consumer medium, receive validation.

* Ted Turner: Time Warner’s vice chairman and largest individual shareholder said he cast his 100 million shares in favor of the merger with as much enthusiasm “as I did when I first made love some 42 years ago.” His holdings soared to about $9 billion.

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Losers

* Michael Eisner: The Disney chairman, as well as other entertainment moguls, may be sitting on valuable properties, but where were they during the dealing? Now they’re left to wonder what might have been-- there’s only one AOL.

* Earthlink: AOL will continue to sell dial-up Internet access, but the merger would give it the potential to package it with cable service and entertainment content. Smaller Internet service providers now need unique content-- fast.

* Excite@Home: Ready for the broadband wars? AOL’s proposed merger with Times Warner, which has 12 million cable subscribers, points to a future of high-speed communications services. Excite@Home might have ben first, but it now has some competition.