News In Brief

On the heels of its announced merger with America Online, Time Warner will consolidate with EMI Group Plc. to form one of the world's largest record companies, industry sources and news reports said. Details are to be revealed today, but the new company reportedly will be named Warner EMI Music, and analysts valued the deal at $7.3 billion. Their labels include Atlantic, Capitol, Elektra, Warner Brothers, and Virgin, with such featured artists as the Beatles, the Spice Girls, the Rolling Stones, Cher, Eric Clapton, Madonna, REM, and the late Frank Sinatra. Warner Music is based in New York; EMI in London.

DaimlerChrysler is planning to expand into the banking and life- and property-insurance businesses, a Berlin newspaper reported. In an interview with Welt am Sonntag, senior company official Klaus Mangold provided no other details. But he did announce a plan to offer a car- financing service via the Internet that would aim to issue responses to customer-credit applications within 15 minutes. Chrysler and Daimler-Benz merged in May 1998.

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