Time Warner to Sell Cable Division

[TheProfessor]

Time Warner plans sell its stake in its cable division, the company said Wednesday during its quarterly earnings call.

"We've decided that a complete structural separation of Time Warner Cable, under the right circumstances, is in the best interests of both companies' shareholders," Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a statement.

Time Warner owns 84 percent of Time Warner Cable's stock, with public stockholders owning the remainder. Bewkes previously said a sale was possible due to Time Warner Cable's "increasingly different capital and financial needs than our other businesses."

Bewkes said negotiations with Time Warner Cable should be finalized soon.

Time Warner Cable reported on Wednesday net income of US$242 million, or $0.25 per basic and diluted common share, for its first quarter of 2008. Revenue increased to $4.2 billion, 8 percent or $309 million more than the first quarter of 2007.

For the same quarter a year prior, net income was $276 million, or $0.28 per basic and diluted common share. However, Time Warner Cable said that figure included an $81 million sale of an equity interest in another company, so the latest results are actually better.

Time Warner Cable is the second-largest provider in the U.S. At the end last month, the company counted 14.7 million subscribers for its video, high-speed data and voice services.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscente..._division.html

[halcro 1]

Very Interesting ... I suppose the make a bundle on RR and the stupid phone,, maybe verizon will buy them and my TV will be happier

[vinnie97]

Originally Posted by halcro 1

Very Interesting ... I suppose the make a bundle on RR and the stupid phone,, maybe verizon will buy them and my TV will be happier

heh that wouldn't make AT&T happy.

[Geonosis]

I just want to see more competition in cable, I hate the Time Warner monopoly and their super expensive cable packages. Just like the ma bells of late, I hope the FCC steps in and breaks up the monopoly and permits cable to be leased to other providers to increase choice. Depending on your market, you only have one choice in cable.

[Liqwid]

This sort of makes me happy to be on Charter.

[taygan315]

Originally Posted by Geonosis

I just want to see more competition in cable, I hate the Time Warner monopoly and their super expensive cable packages. Just like the ma bells of late, I hope the FCC steps in and breaks up the monopoly and permits cable to be leased to other providers to increase choice. Depending on your market, you only have one choice in cable.

Could not agree with you more. My family and I pay about $180 a month on the phone, computer, cable, and HD. When I first got my hdtv, we had delphia in this area. When I first turned on my then brand new hdtv, I got over the air hd programming...thanks to my hd tuner built in. I was able to get my local chanels, tnt, and Animal Planet in hd...right out of the box!! PQ was great as well. Lasted a little over a year and then TW came and took over delphia. I was forced to buy their hd box and...have not been that thrilled with the pq ever since. ESPN looks good but everything else...meh. Thought about getting a indoor hi def attena for my local chanels for the sports (which is what I watch when I am watching tv in hd). Dont really watch much tnt, espn, animal planet. I mean, I am glad I can watch these channels in hd if I want to, but I spend a majority of my time watching my and movies or playing with the kids. Plus, the only time I have to turn on my hdtv is Friday and Saturday nights (about 9pm) for about 4-5 hours and thats it. Hopefully, with TW selling its cable division that means I can get these channels back over the air instead of a hd box.

[mosul210]

Originally Posted by Geonosis

I just want to see more competition in cable, I hate the Time Warner monopoly and their super expensive cable packages. Just like the ma bells of late, I hope the FCC steps in and breaks up the monopoly and permits cable to be leased to other providers to increase choice. Depending on your market, you only have one choice in cable.

I sencond that sentiment. Cable prices have been rising at a ridiculous rate. Providers (Time Warner Cable in my situation) claim monthly fees are based on upgraded services. But what about those of us who are fine with our services now. We are being forced to pay extra whether we asked for the upgrades or not. I agree the cable monopoly is getting out of hand. As Geonosis stated the government needs to step in just as they did in the early 80's leading to the break up of AT&T.

[Leedogg]

So I finally upgraded to TWC digital cable with HD. And decided to email and ask them when they think Speed, USA, and Sci-Fi will be available in HD.

This is what I got back:

Dear Lee,

Thank you for contacting Time Warner Cable, e-mail support.

Lee, from your email I understand that you want to know when SPEED, USA,
and Sci-Fi channel will be available in HD. Please be assured I will try
my best to address your concern.

Lee, thank you for your email concerning Time Warner Cable's
programming. We appreciate your input and will share it with our
corporate office.

Contractual agreements for carriage or removal of specific programmers
are negotiated at the corporate level and information about what our
customers want on their cable service is taken into consideration during
those negotiations. Each individual affiliate, such as Music Choice,
makes the ultimate decision as to what programming they will provide to
Time Warner for airing. If there is specific programming that you would
like to see added, we encourage you to contact the affiliate directly.

Thank you for choosing Time Warner Cable as your entertainment provider.
Your business is important to us, and we hope you will continue to
provide us input on what we're doing right and what we can do to improve
our service for you. You can also obtain information from our web site
at www.timewarnercable.com. If you have any further questions feel free
to reply to this e-mail.


Lee, once again thank you for contacting Time Warner Cable, e-mail
support. We value you as a customer!



What the heck does that mean? Do I have to email (exxample: Speed) and request Speed. To put a HD channel on TWC.

I'm totally confused.

[crazzeto]

That my friend, is called a copout.... My solution, switch to directv as soon as I am able too.