The Walt Disney Company's Buena Vista Internet Group (BVIG) has named ABC
Inc. President Steven Bornstein as chairman. Bornstein will oversee BVIG's
previously announced plan to merge with Infoseek, an internet search
engine, to form a single Internet business called go.com and issue a new
class of common stock to track the performance of the new enterprise. The
transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the 1999 calendar
year. At that time, Bornstein, who is currently a member of the Infoseek
Board of Directors, will be named president of go.com. Bornstein will head
an experienced team of Internet executives as the merger of BVIG and
Infoseek is completed and go.com is established. Key team members include
Steve Wadsworth, president of BVIG, and Patrick Naughton, executive vice
president of products for Infoseek. Bornstein noted that BVIG and Infoseek
already possess an unmatched array of Internet assets. In January of this
year, the two firms launched GO Network, which combined Infoseek's user reach, services
and Internet search engine with Disney's global brand awareness. BVIG is
responsible for creating and operating a broad array of family,
entertainment, news and sports Web sites, including: Disney.com, a kids and
family site; Family.com, a parenting resource; ABC.com, the TV network's
Web site; ABCNEWS.com, a news site online; and ESPN.com, a sports site.