WB, Turner in one group

        AOL Time Warner is merging the WB broadcast network and the Turner cable networks under one group led by the WB's chief executive, Jamie Kellner.

        The move creates the nation's largest television group, with the WB, TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies, the Cartoon Network and all of the CNN networks under Mr. Kellner's watch.

        Terence McGuirk, a 28-year Turner veteran who has been chairman of Turner Broadcasting, will become a part-time vice chairman under Kellner.
       

Xerox sells half of venture

        Xerox Corp. took an important step toward recovery Tuesday by selling half its stake in a joint venture, but the struggling copier maker still has plenty of work to do, analysts said.

        Xerox announced Tuesday it had agreed to sell half its 50 percent stake in Fuji Xerox to Fuji Photo Film Co. for more than $1.3 billion. Xerox will retain a 25 percent stake in Fuji Xerox, a joint venture through which it sells its products in Asia, primarily Japan.

        “I think ... they're on track,” said Pete Enderlin, senior vice president of Ryan Beck in New York. “But they have to cut costs and eventually get their sales growth up to high, single-digit rates.”
       

Target expands; profit up

        Target Corp., the No. 3 discounter, said fiscal fourth-quarter profit rose 5.7 percent, beating estimates, and that it agreed to buy the rights to 35 former Montgomery Ward & Co. stores to expand in California and other markets.

        Net income in the quarter ended Feb. 3 was $552 million, or 61 cents a share, compared with profit from operations of $522 million, or a split-adjusted 56 cents, a year earlier. Analysts' average estimate was 59 cents, said First Call/Thomson Financial.
       

Crown sells off 19 stores

        Books-A-Million Inc., the nation's third-largest book retailer, said it will acquire the inventories of 19 Crown Books Corp. stores as part of Crown's bankruptcy reorganization.

        Books-A-Million said it also would assume the leases on the 19 stores, located in the Washington and Chicago metropolitan areas, according to a company statement. The transaction still must be approved a bankruptcy judge overseeing Crown's Chapter 11 case.
       

Bloomberg steps down

        Media mogul and potential New York mayoral candidate Michael Bloomberg is stepping down as chairman of Bloomberg LP, naming a close friend and longtime associate as his successor.

        Mr. Bloomberg's successor as chairman, Peter T. Grauer, is on the financial information and media company's board of directors. Mr. Bloomberg, 59, will remain the company's chief executive officer.
       

Sun Micro buys InfraSearch

        Sun Microsystems Inc., whose server computers run corporate networks and Web sites, said it agreed to buy InfraSearch Inc. to boost a new project to develop peer-to-peer computing technology.

        Terms of the stock transaction weren't disclosed. So-called peer-to-peer technology enables users to share files and distribute big tasks over a number of machines.
       

EU shuts down livestock marts

        European Union veterinary experts on Tuesday ordered all livestock markets closed for two weeks in the 15-nation bloc in an effort to contain foot-and-mouth disease.

        The EU panel said livestock transport would be allowed between farms and direct to slaughterhouses; but all markets and assembly points for cattle, pigs and sheep would be banned.

        The panel also extended until March 27 a ban on all exports of meat, livestock and milk products from Britain and said the tires of vehicles arriving from Britain in other EU nations must be disinfected.

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