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Time Warner's Identity Crisis
Company may reduce TWC ownership stake
Time Warner says they may be reducing their ownership stake (via Techdirt) in Time Warner Cable, and they are looking for a major Internet content company to buy -- a decision that's interesting considering how their AOL acquisition went. The move is driven by concerns that investment funds would be better spent on content instead of delivery:
"Getting rid of a big chunk of its cable holdings would transform the nature of Time Warner, making it more reliant on its role as a provider of filmed entertainment and print and Web content. For years, Time Warner has believed in wedding its movies and television programs to powerful distribution networks -- primarily its cable operation -- as a way to ensure that their content wouldn't be blocked by rivals. But with the Internet increasingly serving as a home for TV and film offerings, content companies may feel they no longer need to control old-style distribution networks such as cable or satellite TV."
Time Warner owns 84% of Time Warner Cable, which went public just a few weeks ago.

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FFH5
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join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

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FFH5

Premium Member

The corporate theory is "Core competency"

The theory for Time Warner to dump their ownership stake in their cable operations is called "Concentrating on a company's core competencies". »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co ··· mpetency

And Time Warner's competency has always been on content creation. They thought they had to get in to content delivery based on the mgt theories of "Diversification of Assets" and "Vertical Integration". »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me ··· nd_M.26A
That plan proved that they sucked at content delivery.

Some corporate leaders often are nothing but "follow the leader" bozos who base their companies policies on what they read in the latest hot management book or were told was important by some consulting firm. The really smart leaders don't just "follow the leader", but actually can think after doing real research on their market and on the economy.

Now, what will Time Warner do with their shares in Time Warner Cable? Selling to another company like Comcast or Verizon or AT&T probably is a non-starter because it will never get approvals now from the FCC and from Justice and from state governments. The telecomm merger window has closed for the time being and any more merger approvals are EXTREMELY unlikely.

Another option is for mgt of TWC to do a leveraged buyout of the remaining Time Warner Cable shares. But this too is hard to do given how many shares are involved and getting someone to front them the money while only getting a lenders payout for the loans.

The most likely option is for all of these private equity firms with well hidden billionaire investors to buy up the shares and take TWC private. One or more have the financial wherewithal, either singly or in partnership, to make that happen. And then they fall outside the control of the SEC and since there is no merger, they don't need approval of the FCC or Justice.