Bischoff was doing business with Fusient Media Ventures, not Panda Energy.  
 
The deal fell through when Jamie Kellner cancelled WCW off of the Turner Networks because the promotion didn't mean squat without TV. The decision to cancel the programming may or may not have been influenced by then-WWF executive Stu Snyder's relationship with WCW boss Brad Siegel. The WWF had previously been in the running as one of the potential buyers (creating WCW, Inc. back in September 2000 to handle the transfer of resources), but their exclusive deal with Viacom prohibited a WWF owned WCW from airing on TBS and TNT. When Kellner cancelled it, Fusient pulled out, the green light was given for the WWF to move in., and ownership of assets were moved from Turner's World Championship Wrestling, Inc. to WWFE's WCW, Inc.
 
Either way, Turner was reportedly going to shut the company down by the end of the month anyway had a deal not been reached. However, it is interesting to note that the corporate shell of the Turner owned WCW, now known as Universal Wrestling Corp. (which was actually it's original name before it was changed to World Championship Wrestling, Inc.), is still listed on Georgia records as an active entity.

Quote from Parallax8672 on Jan 27^th, 2008, 11:35pm:

If you want to know more about the situation surrounding Bischoff--I recommend reading EB's book.  You would be amazed at how his power was not that great at a very early time in the Nitro era.  In fact, by the time the nWo was in full swing, the AOL/Time Warner merger was starting--and the corporate structure would put lawyers on Bischoff telling him what he could/could not do on TV (stuff like Bret showing up on Nitro with the belt was not a possibility), and profitability of WCW was judged on the EBITDA scale.  Later, he was not allowed to hire anyone for TV production--even though he was forced to produce "Thunder."  EB was in a tough spot for a few years there.

an easy answer for me is that vince buying wcw at the time he did had no real affect as wcw was on deaths door for awhile.  now the archives were really the gem as mentioned but i hate that vince owns them as all u will ever get is his crappy dvd sets with nothing really good or rare in them.  seeing old matches now with the wwe logo is a huge slap in the face.  vince has always put on crap he called wresling but is more like sideshow circus acts than wrestling.  i pray vince wont get anymore libraries.

Whenever I'm topwater fishing for largemouths up north in the summer, I always run over how badly Titan screwed up this acquisition/merger etc and moreover, how they SHOULD'VE done it.  
 
I was in grade 8 at the time and while I was an internet "smark" by then, I was still REALLY excited for the idea of Dream Matches and a WWF vs. WCW "war", because let's face it, with two huge promotions with two massive rosters, there is always some fantasy booking of "who would beat whom". However, after Booker did his KOTR runin and not much else followed,  I remember how even I was unimpressed at them calling it WCW, but really only having Booker, DDP and a bunch of powerplant guys. Then they go and merge with ECW and have Stephanie McMahon, Paul E. and Austin running "The Alliance" with no substancial WCW main eventer at the forefront of this "war" who were really bigtime WCW superstars when they were crushing Vince and eventually they just became a really lame Zgrade heel stable and got jobbed out miserably.  
 
What really burns my hyde is that three Wrestlemanias later, all bigtime main eventers from the WCW heyday had done a run with WWF aside from Sting, Savage and Luger. For my money, I think that it would've been the BIGGEST ANGLE EVER if they had laid down the big money and tried to buyout the bigtime names from WCW and have a trueblue WCW vs. WWF angle. I'm pretty positive that the angle could've gone on for a very long time, more than a few years and with proper booking, instead of a brand split, they could've successfully had a LEGITIMATE second, independent brand.
 
I'd have one major promotion under the WWF banner, however I’d have several bigtime stables at war with each other, with the ultimate theme be WCW vs. WWF and you'd also have some big turns and superstars jump stables and at the end, you have a really articulated and well developed angle.
 
WCW Main Event:
Goldberg- Face
nWo: Hogan, Hall,  Nash, Bishoff, X Pac, Triple H(big turn)- Heel
Roddy Piper
4 Horsemen: Flair, Benoit, Guerrero, Shane Douglas w/ AA. Tweener. We’re stretching w/ Douglas, but AA was retired and Mongo was long done by now and they weren’t doing anything with Eddie either.
The Giant- Heel
Scott Steiner- Heel
 
WCW Intercontinental/US Title:
DDP- Face
Raven- Heel
Booker T- Face
Rick Steiner- Heel
Dustin Rhodes w/ Dusty Rhodes- Heel
 
WCW Tag Teams:
Road Warriors- Heel
Rey Mysterio & Billy Kidman- Face
Bam Bam Bigelow & Chris Kanyon- Heel
Natural Born Thillers(O’Haire, Palumbo & Jindrek)
 
WWF Main Event:
Austin- Face
Vince McMahon- Heel
The Rock- Face
Mick Foley- Face
Angle- Heel
Jericho- Heel
Undertaker- Face
Kane- Heel
 
WWF Intercontinental/US Title:
RVD-face
Rikishi- Face
Val Venis- Heel
William Regal-Heel
Test- Heel
Billy Gunn-Face
 
WWF Tag Teams:
Hardy Boys- Face
Edge & Christian- Heel
Dudley Boys- Heel
APA- Heel
 
I’m not saying my roster would be the “best”, but I see it as a blueprint or a starting ground for where they could’ve gone with the potential roster at the WWF’s disposal and with all that talent, I’m positive that the WCW vs WWF angle could’ve gone on  for years and been stellar.
 
 
 

Vince bought a video collection , nothing more , nothing less. WCW was dead long before the sale. The WCW Eric built up had nothing to do with the NWA , it was dead before that sale. People always blame Vince , but somehow Dusty , Crockett , Gagne , Fritz and the heros of your weekend have nothing to do with it at all. Vince and co. took on WCW with a endless amount of money and a huge backer and killed them with Austin , Taker , Foley , HHH (all WCW throwaways mid carders) and The Rock. THE END!

Quote from JBLCENAFAN on Jan 5^th, 2012, 5:54pm:

 
Don't forget how big a role Vince using Paul Heyman's ideas played in WWF killing WCW.  Around the beginning of the Monday Night Wars, on WWF TV you didn't see blood, people going through tables and taking other extreme style bumps, catfights, and the more adult language that you started to hear in promos on WWF TV once Vince started copying Heyman's ECW and calling it "WWF Attitude."  Also, Vince hired Austin and Foley from ECW, not WCW.