By 2000, America Online had established itself as one of the world’s leading Internet service providers, boasting roughly 22 million customers in the United States and abroad. In January 2000, it announced plans to take over Time Warner in a deal worth roughly $182 billion in stock and debt The deal saw AOL take over media giants such as Time, People, Fortune, Warner Entertainment, HBO, New Line Cinema, and CNN.CNN Money, one of the companies directly affected by the merger, wrote that the new company “will boast unrivaled assets among other media and online companies” and described the deal as a “stunning development validates the Internet’s role as a leader in the new world economy.”The Federal Trade Commission approved the deal 5-to-0 in December 2000 after what CNN Money described as “unprecedented concessions” aimed at protecting competition in the high-speed Internet access business.