Business Notes MERGERS

A potential obstacle to the largest media merger ever, the planned combination of Time Inc. and Warner Communications, was cleared away last week when Warner settled a four-year dispute with its largest shareholder, Chris-Craft Industries. Since the company holds some 15% of Warner shares, Chris-Craft could have complicated the nearly $20 billion Time-Warner merger. Chris-Craft might have done so by delaying the completion of the merger, as it did last year in Warner's acquisition of Lorimar Telepictures. Both Chris-Craft and Warner made concessions in reaching an agreement to no longer disagree. As part of the deal, Chris-Craft chairman Herbert Siegel will resign as a Warner director. Time Inc., the parent company of TIME's publisher, and Warner have scheduled meetings for June 23, when shareholders of each company will vote on the merger.