Parsons: Cable Biz Shakeout Coming

PARSONS: CABLE BIZ SHAKEOUT COMING
[SOURCE: New York Post, AUTHOR: Peter Lauria]
If there was any doubt that the motto for publicly traded cable companies is get big or get out, Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons erased it. Speaking at a Merrill Lynch conference in London, Parsons said that as consolidation in the cable industry continues he expects Time Warner's stake in its cable unit to get smaller as its footprint gets bigger. "Eventually, five years down the road, it's conceivable to me that because of the way that business grows... there could come a point in time when there's two separate stand-alone companies," Parsons said of a potential split of Time Warner from its cable division. Translation: Time Warner expects its ownership of the cable unit to get diluted more and more as the division uses its stock to buy additional systems until eventually it and Comcast are the only two cable companies left trading on the public markets.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06082007/business/parsons__cable_biz_shakeou...