Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) no longer has an affiliation with Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX), but seems to like the name. The nation’s second largest cable provider behind Comcast is headquartered in New York, NY but it reaches into the homes of over 22 million people in 29 states. Today, it announced that it is further expanding its reach through the acquisition of DukeNet Communications LLC.
DukeNet Communications is a regional fiber-optic network company based in Charlotte, NC and presently has a fiber-optic network of over 8,700 miles. Its network provides data and bandwidth services to customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and an additional five states in the Southeast.
DukeNet Communications is jointly owned by Ducke Energy Corjp. and Alinda Capital. The sale is believed to be valued at $600 million in cash, including repayment of debt, and will be acquired in order to help Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) build up its business-services operations.
“Business services is a key growth area for Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) and this acquisition will greatly enhance our already growing fiber network to better serve customers, particularly those in key markets in the Carolinas,” said Phil Meeks, chief operating officer of business services for Time Warner Cable.
The deal between the three companies is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.
“The sale completes Duke Energy’s transition out of DukeNet, which although a growing operation, is a noncore business to our company,” said Marc Manly, president of Duke Energy’s commercial-business group.
Time Warner Cable has fallen victim to cost pressures incurred by television networks raising programming fees for their original content. Additionally, more and more people are dropping their home cable subscriptions due to other options like Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. Profit margins are considerably higher in its broadband cable and business-service units, so the move makes a tremendous amount of sense to offset the aforementioned losses in other areas.
In August, the company said its second-quarter earnings rose, amid growth in business services revenue.
Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE:TWC) closed the day down 1.57 percent following a share loss of $1.77. The stock has begun rebounding in after-hours trading picking up nearly a third of the day’s losses as of this writing. For the year, the stock is up over 15 percent.
