Marvel's Final Piece

With the largest merger in history—America Online announcing its merger with Time Warner—the two sides jointly formed the America Online-Time Warner Group.

Although Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin remained CEO of the merged company, most of its key executives were former America Online personnel, including Chairman Steve Case, co-COO Bob Pittman, CFO Michael Kelly, and several highly important vice presidents.

As for Time Warner, aside from retaining the CEO position, the only other notable post was co-COO Richard Parsons. Even Ted Turner merely retained the titles of vice chairman and senior advisor.

Clearly, even from the name America Online-Time Warner Group, it was obvious which side held the dominant position.

However, a merger of this scale would not be easy. Disney's acquisition of ABC and Dawn's acquisition of CBS had both taken more than half a year.

Given the size of America Online and Time Warner, their merger would inevitably take even longer.

"A ten-episode TV miniseries is going to cost over 100 million dollars to film?"

At Dawn Pictures Headquarters in Burbank, Dawn Television head Everett Fleck looked at Aaron in astonishment.

Even with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks serving as producers, an investment on this scale was far beyond expectations.

Aaron smiled. "Don't worry. With DreamWorks involved, once Starz! airs Band of Brothers, it may be expensive, but the returns will be unexpected."

Tom Hanks, DreamWorks, and Starz! were jointly developing Band of Brothers.

That afternoon, Aaron went to the Marvel Studios conference room to check on Spider-Man, which was set for release that summer, and X-Men, which was currently filming.

Marvel Entertainment was now managed by David Meisel, while Lauren Donner served as president of Marvel Studios.

Marvel's former creative officer, Stan Lee, had left Marvel in 1998. Although Stan Lee had created many popular superhero characters