Time Warner to sell cable division

Time Warner plans sell its stake in its cable division, the company said Wednesday during its quarterly earnings call.

"We've decided that a complete structural separation of Time Warner Cable, under the right circumstances, is in the best interests of both companies' shareholders," Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a statement.

Time Warner owns 84 percent of Time Warner Cable's stock, with public stockholders owning the remainder. Bewkes previously said a sale was possible due to Time Warner Cable's "increasingly different capital and financial needs than our other businesses."

Bewkes said negotiations with Time Warner Cable should be finalized soon.

Time Warner Cable reported on Wednesday net income of US$242 million, or $0.25 per basic and diluted common share, for its first quarter of 2008. Revenue increased to $4.2 billion, 8 percent or $309 million more than the first quarter of 2007.

For the same quarter a year prior, net income was $276 million, or $0.28 per basic and diluted common share. However, Time Warner Cable said that figure included an $81 million sale of an equity interest in another company, so the latest results are actually better.

Time Warner Cable is the second-largest provider in the U.S. At the end last month, the company counted 14.7 million subscribers for its video, high-speed data and voice services.

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