SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The USA Networks-Expedia deal will close in
the first or second quarter, a USA official said.
"It will close and it will close on the terms already in the
deal," said Jon Miller, president and chief executive officer of
USA Information & Services, the unit that includes
TicketMaster, Hotel Reservations Network and other businesses.
Miller spoke here Jan. 8 at the Salomon Smith Barney 12th Annual
Entertainment, Media & Telecommunications Conference.
The deal, in which USA would take a majority stake in
Microsoft-controlled Expedia, hit a snag in mid-December when USA
agreed to sell its entertainment assets to Vivendi Universal for
$10.3 billion.
At the time, Expedia took an approval vote off the agenda of its
Dec. 17 shareholder meeting and said it would submit new
documentation in anticipation of a shareholder special meeting in
2002.
Miller, in addressing the investor conference, said the
USA-Expedia deal is going through a routine "mechanical process"
and that there was no reason to believe that it will not close by
the end of the first quarter or early in the second quarter.