IP Democracy: Time Warner Cable is Suddenly a Public Company

In a suprising move, Time Warner Cable announced this morning that it has become a public company as a result of Adelphia’s Chapter 11 plan becoming effective today. The surprise comes not because Time Warner hasn’t always planned to spin off its cable arm — the media giant has always more or less planned to create a separately traded cable company in order to insulate the high-performer from the other, more volatile parts of the company — but because Time Warner chose to bypass the traditional underwriting offering that is part of an IPO.

Time Warner apparently skipped past all the investment bankers to save money and time, and withdrew its former S-1 filing at the SEC. Instead, Time Warner Cable filed a monster 8-K report detailing the new company, its structure (see image below) and various financial and operational statistics, which are still relatively confusing given the acquisitions, swaps and divestitures that have shaped the nation’s number two cable company over the past 18 months or so. The stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the “TWC” symbol as early as March 1.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on February 13, 2007 1:54 PM to IP Democracy