Reaction Of Senator Patrick Leahy,Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee, To The Proposed AOL-Time Warner Merger

January 10, 2000

"An element of caution is only prudent given the scope and impact of this planned merger.

"Content providers have woken up to the Internet revolution, so this merger between one of the largest owners of content with the largest provider of Internet services may have been inevitable. In this era of mega-mergers, this combination may make strategic sense for these two companies and their many affiliates looking for a pipeline to Internet users, but we will have to look closely at whether it makes public policy sense to consolidate control of content, cable and Internet service distribution channels. At some point, all of this concentration and convergence has implications for consumers because it will minimize competition and choice, giving us fewer voices and fewer pipelines in the marketplace. The question is where, if at all, that line should be drawn, and in the meantime we need to be careful.

"The great promise of the Internet has been to allow people a wide range of information sources and choices. What we should do is to make sure that all that information does not become funneled and controlled by just two or three sources."