But two executives indicated that Yankees officials were trying to exhaust all possibilities.
Still, executives at Merisant, which owns the Equal consumer business, indicated they planned a campaign of their own.
But some executives involved in the talks indicated the figure could be closer to $400 million.
But its executives have indicated that they see their rapidly growing online advertising business extending to other media forms.
The executives indicated they planned to cut staff and spending.
Then the rehiring seemed to stop - although executives of the newspaper indicate that they still have about 100 slots to fill, maybe more.
Several executives close to Time Warner have indicated that the deal does not appeal to all of the company's top management.
Some executives have indicated that this could be embarrassing to the firm's reputation.
Just last week, for instance, executives in the governing party indicated they would devise a spending package of more than $80 billion to stimulate the economy.
Both chief executives indicated that they thought American regulators would not favor giving antitrust immunity to all four airlines.