DISNEY REPORTEDLY IN TALKS TO BUY STAKE IN STARWAVE.

Byline: Michael Stroud Bloomberg News

Walt Disney Co. is negotiating to buy a controlling stake in Starwave Corp., billionaire Paul Allen's company that designs and runs World Wide Web sites including Mr. Showbiz and NBA.com, people familiar with Allen's plans said.

Disney and Allen declined to comment.

Talks between the two companies, which jointly run the popular ESPNet SportsZone site on the Web, hinge on the size of Disney's stake and could conclude within two weeks, an executive close to the negotiations said. Starwave is valued between $250 million and $300 million, analysts said.

Starwave President Mike Slade praised his company's relationship with ESPN, which is owned by Disney, and said Starwave ``will likely do more things with ESPN in the future.'' He declined to comment further.

By buying part of Starwave, which also operates the Family Planet Web site, Disney would jump-start its plans to develop a new family-oriented on-line service. It also would neutralize a potential on-line competitor and leapfrog network TV rivals CBS, NBC and Fox, which are beefing up their own Internet sports offerings.

``Disney and Starwave are already joined at the hip through SportsZone,'' said Peter Krasilovsky, new media analyst at Arlen Communications Inc. in Bethesda, Md.

For Allen, a Disney investment would bolster a sports and entertainment empire that includes ownership of the Portland Trailblazers basketball team, a controlling stake in ticketing giant Ticketmaster Group Inc. and a stake in Hollywood's DreamWorks SKG.

A partnership with Disney offers him a way to ``share risks and cement a partnership in family services, where Starwave's success is less certain than in sports,'' Krasilovsky said.