Joint Ventures

The Oprah Winfrey Network seems to have everything needed to succeed: some of the best creative minds in the business, strong financial backing, a loyal audience and enthusiastic advertisers eager to buy commercial time. But more than 20 months after the announcement that Winfrey was teaming with Discovery Communications Inc. to create a cable channel that celebrates her ethos, "Living your best life," not much has happened -- except for a revolving door of executives. Three top programmers abruptly left the Los Angeles-based network in recent months, and development spending has been cut. OWN was supposed to have launched by now, but its debut has been pushed back to mid-2010.

Barry Diller, who warned last week at a media industry conference that the transition from old media to new media would be "bloody," is turning to Ben Silverman for help with triage.

New York Times Co. and business news channel CNBC will share video and stories from each other's websites in an alliance that could bolster them against an expected assault by News Corp. Under the deal, New York Times stories will be posted on CNBC's website and the Times will use CNBC video for its site. Neither company will pay the other for its news.

Starbucks Corp. and AT&T Inc. will start offering a mix of free and paid wireless Internet service in most of the international coffee retailer's U.S. shops, beginning this spring. The move announced Monday ends a six-year partnership with T-Mobile, which did not include free Wi-Fi and charged higher fees than AT&T will. Starbucks said it would give customers who use a Starbucks card two hours of free wireless access per day. More time than that will cost $3.99 for a two-hour session.

In an effort to recapture some of the national advertising dollars that have fled the pages of newspapers for major websites, Tribune Co. and three other leading media chains today will announce a joint venture to sell ads on their Web pages on a national scale. The alliance, called QuadrantONE, is financed by Tribune, the parent of The Times, along with Gannett Co., Hearst Corp. and New York Times Co.

MySpace, the top social networking site owned by News Corp., is in talks to create an online music joint venture with the four biggest record companies, sources familiar with the discussion said Wednesday. The talks are part of Rupert Murdoch's plans to distinguish MySpace, a haven for new music fans, from fast-moving rival Facebook as the premier destination for digital media. Plans for the service, tentatively named MySpace Music, are still in the discussion phase.

Nissan Motor Co. said Monday that it would make a new small car designed by Chrysler and that Chrysler would make a full-size pickup truck designed by Nissan. The agreement is part of a growing relationship between Chrysler and the No. 3 Japanese automaker as they try to adapt to markets buffeted by the economic slowdown and rising gasoline prices. Both products will be sold in North America, and the new Chrysler small car will also be sold in Europe and other global markets starting in 2010.

Microsoft Corp. turned to Internet pioneer Yahoo Inc. for help in fighting its biggest-ever competitive threat, then only made that threat stronger. Yahoo and Microsoft on Thursday said they had ended nearly five months of merger and partnership talks born of the software giant's frustration with falling far behind Google Inc. in online advertising. Yahoo shares plunged more than 10% to $23.52. But after the stock market closed, the Sunnyvale, Calif.

The owners of the Tour de France and Tour of California cycling races announced Monday that they have entered a marketing and sponsorship agreement. Considering the events' longevity, it is an unexpected partnership between Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), which runs the 105-year-old Tour de France, and AEG, which has the 4-year-old Tour of California.

Gores Group, a private equity firm headed by Los Angeles billionaire Alec Gores, will acquire a 51% stake in Siemens Enterprise Communications, a division of Germany's electronics giant Siemens with annual revenue of $5.5 billion, the companies said Tuesday. Terms were undisclosed. Siemens would keep 49% of the networking and communications company, which would be a joint venture operated by Gores Group.