COMPANY TOWN : Is Tiger Ted Suffering From a Case of Seller’s Remorse?

No question about it. Ted Turner is a pistol. Always has been. Always will be.

His public bragging that he’s “looking forward to squishing Rupert [Murdoch] like a bug� if Murdoch ever launches a cable network to compete with CNN and taunting Barry Diller that “you ain’t got any size,� referring to his new Silver King TV stations is so Ted.

Whatever Ted thinks, Ted says.

Which is what has many industry insiders, including folks in his own camp, wondering how much credence to give the public comments he has made since the announced merger of Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and Time Warner Inc. At last week’s Western Cable Show in Anaheim and in a recent Wall Street Journal interview, he seemed downright regretful about the merger and dubious about his new role as vice chairman of the combined company.

“It’s not much of a job, but I have another life to go to if I have to,� Turner remarked to his cable brethren last week.

Although he clearly believes that in the competitive world of entertainment business, bigger is better--he wouldn’t have agreed to sell his baby otherwise--Turner also says he’s concerned that the handful of corporate monoliths being created by the current merger mania has its downside.

“Consolidation means less diversity, and that is sad,� he said in the convention’s opening session Wednesday. “My company will no longer exist--that is no good at all.�

Turner says he fears that the same deregulation of the communications industry he’s lobbying for may eventually result in four or five companies controlling the world of product.

If Turner is concerned, what must regulators on Capitol Hill, who are now evaluating the merger, be thinking? Turner’s lawyers are ever mindful of just that. One Turner attorney at the opening session squirmed in his seat with distress when Turner seemed to be giving Washington ammunition for a case against the merger.

Washington is already looking askance at the merger. And Turner’s largest shareholder, TCI chief John Malone, told the Hollywood Reporter last week that the merger had zero chance of going through in its present form.

At the cable show, Turner also seemed surprisingly passive about his say in the restructuring of Time Warner, a company in which he would be the single largest shareholder.

He noted how sad it would be if New Line and Castle Rock, the two movie companies he bought about two years ago, lost their independence and were put under the Warner Bros. studio rather than left to operate autonomously as they have under his ownership.

But Turner does have a say in such a matter, according to sources at Time Warner. New Line and Castle Rock principals contractually continue to report directly to Ted, merger or no merger.

Though the eventual fate of the two movie companies has not been decided, rumors bloomed late last week that New Line would be sold off, because after all, what does Warner need with another 30 movie releases a year?

The word on the street was that New Line’s top management was actively seeking a buyer, naturally with Turner and Time Warner’s permission. Again, high-level sources at New Line and Warner insist that’s categorically untrue.

Taken at face value, all of Turner’s recent remarks appear to be from a guy who is suffering from a bad case of seller’s remorse--someone who’s having second thoughts about the whole thing (not that he could easily back out).

But those who know him well say he’s simply suffering from a case of genuine ambivalence. Simply musing out loud about the conflict swimming in his head, behavior not unusual for the notoriously outspoken Southerner. In psychobabble terms, it would be called processing. Whereas most people do it privately, Ted wears his heart on his sleeve.

“Does he have seller’s remorse? Yes. Is it serious? No,� said a source close to Turner.

Another industry executive observed: “I think he’s just going through the realization that after so many years of building and running his own company, he effectively is turning over part of his business, and that’s hard for him.�

The source continued: “He’s living with the dramatic nature of the transition. He’s coming to terms with that. Working through it. He’s in a very strange state of limbo.�

Said a source connected to Time Warner: “Every time Ted goes somewhere to speak publicly, we just wait for the headlines.�

Immediately after the Turner panel in Anaheim broke up, the media mogul was rushed off by his concerned handlers, leaving fellow panelist Diller to fend off the news media.

As for what Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin must be thinking about all this, a Time Warner source said: “Oh, Levin has known Ted for 20 years and nothing he could say would surprise him. When you buy Ted, you got to know what you’re buying.�

But then there was the recent Wall Street Journal interview with Turner, in which he called his impending position as vice chairman of Time Warner “a meaningless title� and said he is “used to being in charge.�

The implication being that Turner won’t stand to be the No. 2 guy for long. But then again, if things don’t work out, as Turner said at last week’s convention, “I have horses and I like to fish.�