Time Warner Cable Completes Sale of N.C. Systems

By Jon Hemingway -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/20/2007 10:33:00 AM

Time Warner Cable completed the sale cable systems in North Carolina to a local agency.

The $51 million deal involves the sale of systems representing 14,300 subscribers in Mecklenburg County and the towns of Mooresville, Davidson and Cornelius to a local agency that represents these municipalities, MI-Connection Communications System. The local authorities had right of first refusal under their franchise agreements which were exercised when the Adelphia Communications systems were acquired by Time Warner Cable last year.

Time Warner Cable has 1.9 million basic cable subscribers in North Carolina and South Carolina, including divisions in Raleigh, Greensboro, Wilmington, Charlotte and Columbia.

The company has hinted that it may be in the market to acquire more systems down the road, and it was an active participant in the bidding for the Insight Communications assets this past year.

How changes atop the cable operator’s parent company will affect the company in the new year remains to be seen. Effective January 1, Dick Parsons will step down as CEO of Time Warner Inc. and Jeff Bewkes will take his place. Both Parsons and Bewkes have deflected comment about possibly spinning off Time Warner Cable in the near term.