Daily News from New York, New York • 32

i CO DOW JONES 109.88 10,976.89 NASDAQ 3,848.55 Dueling duo find peace in biz deal One of Hollywood's chilliest feuds is thawing out. Talent manager Michael Ovitz and Universal Studios chairman Ron Meyer have been estranged for years but the relationship appears to be warming a bit now that they're about to be entwined in Selected Tech Investments COMPANY AMOUNT INVESTED DATE 3 TheStreet.com $7.5 million August joint investment 2. Priceline.com $190 million August joint investment 3. RCN $1.65 billion October 1999 4. Oxygen Media $100 million June 1999 5.

Go2Net $426 million March 1999 6. TiVo undisclosed January 1999 investment 7. ZDTV $54 million November 1998 8. Charter acquired for June PLUGGED IN Communications 1998 $4.5 billion business again, Hollywood sources said. The two entertainment power-brokers, who co-founded talent firm Creative Artists Agency before setting off in different directions five years ago, were spotted meeting in Los Angeles.

Ovitz and Meyer also were seen talking at Herb Allen's Sun Valley, Idaho, Mogulfest in early July. The LA. sit-down took place about the time StudioCanal a division of French conglomerate Vivendi agreed to a joint venture with Ovitz to make 12 to 15 movies in the next three years. The StudioCanal deal will likely put Ovitz in close contact with his former partner. Seagram's Universal, which is being acquired by Vivendi, is a prime candidate to distribute SOURCE: COMPANY REPORTS Paul Allen venturing onto TheStreet.com the books," said Michael Legg, an Internet analyst at Jefferies Co.

"What's interesting is that smart money is investing in TheStreet.com." Allen who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates "has been able to see Wh WEB a lot more ot TheStreet.com books than the rest of us, and apparently he expects the Go2Net's financial site Silicon-Investor fit nicely with our objectives." Clarke also alluded to cable TV opportunities with ZDTV and Charter Communications companies in Vulcan's stable. Another potential partner is Telescan, a Vulcan investment that makes analytical tools used on major Web sites such as AOL, Citibank and NBC. Under the terms of the deal, Vulcan and Go2Net can purchase 7.45 more of TheStreet.com in the next six months, potentially boosting their combined stake to nearly 20. Company co-founders Cramer and New Republic editor Marty Peretz each own around 12. Other partners include The New York Times and Rupert Mur-i doch's News Corp.

i 1 By NANCY DILLON DAlUf NEWS STAFF WRITER Billionaire venture capitalist Paul Allen cast a vote of confidence yesterday in favor of TheStreet.com. Shares of the financial news Web site co-founded by high-profile money manager Jim Cramer shot up more than 20 yesterday after Allen's Vulcan Ventures and Vulcan partner Go2Net announced a joint investment of $7.5 million. The stock added 32 yesterday to $6.06. It had hit an all-time low of $4.68 Monday far below its high of $71 soon after a May 1999 initial public offering. Vulcan and Go2Net, of which Vulcan owns 30, are together biting off 5 of TheStreet.com.

The money "is meaningless considering that TheStreet.com already has $90 million cash on LH three records in America," Morris crowed. Year to date, Universal is the industry leader, with a 28.4 share of the market, far more than the combined market share of 20.7 for pending merger partners Warner Music and EMI. Morris' Universal Music, whose labels include Inter-scope, Universal Records and Def Jam, boasted six out of the top 10 albums in the country last week and seven out of top 10 the previous week. Universal's dominance underscores the significance of the music group to French conglomerate Vivendi, which is buying Universal parent Seagram. Up next for the music giant are releases from The Wallflowers, Godsmack, Erykah Badu and 98 Degrees.

Morris who hooked up with Seagram five years ago after being canned by Time Warner in a bitter power struggle credited his management team. NEWS PARTNERS Slumping WCBS Ch. 2 is looking for a lift from another of CBS' Internet partners. Office.com a Web site that creates content specializing in news and advice for small businesses will produce segments focusing on local businesswomen, such as famed Harlem restaurateur Sylvia Woods. The series, called "Passion to Profits," started yesterday on the station's 4 p.m.

newscast. "It's part of a grander scheme to partner with a variety of different content providers with expertise in particular areas," said WCBS news director Joel Cheatwood, a news turnaround specialist who arrived in April to try to boost the flagging station after stops in Boston, Miami and Philadelphia. Ch. 2's other content partners include music channel VH 1 like WCBS, also part of Viacom as well as CB-SHealthWatch, CBS MarketWatch.com and the Daily News. stock to rebound," Legg said.

Thomas Clarke, CEO of TheStreet.com, said the deal will help improve technology on the site, which recently did away with its subscription fee for most readers. "We really wanted to upgrade our message boards, and the technology behind Ron Meyer Ovitz' films. "There is a realization that they will be working together again," one source said. Meyer and Ovitz declined to comment. Meyer has not spoken publicly of the feud with Ovitz but news reports have suggested that the tension stemmed from their days building CAA, where Meyer was said to have grown resentful as Ovitz snared more power.

AOL's Latin IPO limps out of gate in 5 5 MUSIC BEAT By M0N1QUE EL-FAIZY DAliy NEWS BUSINESS WRITER America Online Latin America, the online giant's foray into the Spanish-language Internet, failed to wow investors in its Wall Street debut a week after its initial public offering price was lowered because of weak interest. The stock's rise of 5 yesterday, or 7 is, to $8.43 was far below the traditional 15 benchmark for a solid first-day gain and nothing like the fourfold or fivefold IPO increases of last year. Jeff Fieler, a consumer Internet analyst at Bear Stearns, said the stock price "is a level from which investors expect they'll be able to make a good rate of return if the business pans out the way they expect." The offering of 25 million shares originally was set in a range of $15 to $17, but that was cut in half when investors showed lackluster interest in the offering at higher levels. "They tried to price it pretty aggressively out of the gate riding the cache of the AOL brand name," Fieler said. "At this point, AOL Latin America is pretty much a work in progress." AOL's dominance of the Latin American markets is anything but certain, since it's relatively new to the region.

The company launched in Brazil late last year, in Mexico a few weeks ago and in Argentina this week. "There's no question that AOL entered these markets a little bit late," said Lucas Graves of Jupi ter Communications. "In each one of these markets they're going up against some pretty entrenched competitors that already have many times more subscribers than does AOL." Another factor that will likely slow AOL's progress in Latin America is the many Internet service providers that offer free service. In many Latin American countries with Mexico being a key exception users pay the phone company for each minute they're online, so they may ob-i ject to the additional cost of AOL. ni It's a market worth competing for Jupiter estimates 67 million people in Latin America will be" using the Internet by 2005.

CM The beat couldn't get any hotter for Universal Music chief Doug Morris. Morris has pulled off what could be a first for the music biz: with a diverse array of chart -toppers from compilation album "Now 4" to white rapper Eminem to breakthrough rock act 3 Doors Down, Seagram-owned Universal controlled a whopping 33 of the U.S. music market last week. "We have one out of every.