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Ted Turner is weighing an $8.5 billion offer to fold Turner Broadcasting into media giant Time Warner. The deal would create the world's largest media company with a combined $18.7 billion in revenue, surpassing the $16.5 billion of the combined Disney-Capitol Cities/ABC. Although Ted Turner is reportedly enthusiastic about the deal, business writer Bernard Baumohl cautions that the deal is far from complete. One major hurdle: convincing John Malone, whose TCI cable company owns 21 percent of Turner Broadcasting, to agree to terms. Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin met with Malone today in New York to iron out an agreement. "Malone's the important figure now," Baumohl notes. "Both Time Warner and TCI have about the same number of shares in Turner because they didnt trust the other not to take over the company. Now Levin has made his move to take over, and it will be interesting to see how Malone responds.