Comcast talks spinoff with Time Warner Cable execs

Atkinson Comcast’s castoffs could be Time Warner Cable executives’ gain.

With the companies’ proposed $45 billion mega-merger under scrutiny, Comcast has pledged to sell 3 million cable subscribers to keep the combined customer base under 30 percent of the US pay-TV market.

One scenario under discussion is spinning out the subscribers to form a new pay-TV company that would be run by Time Warner Cable veterans, The Post has learned.

“[Comcast boss] Brian Roberts is very smart and measured,” said a source close to the talks. “He’ll spin off the subscribers when he gets pushback. There’s a possibility of the Time Warner Cable guys running it.”

Time Warner Cable’s chief financial officer, Arthur Minson, and chief operating officer, Dinni Jain, could run the new cable company, sources said. Jain is a former president of Insight Communications, which Time Warner Cable acquired for $3 billion in 2011.

Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus — who stands to receive an $80 million so-called golden parachute if he closes the Comcast deal — isn’t interested in being part of the new cable play.

“Rob Marcus has no desire to run it,” a source added.

While several sources confirmed the talks, they cautioned that the spinoff is just one of several scenarios that could play out as Comcast works to win regulatory approval for the deal.

Comcast has been approached by several parties, including rival cable companies, eager to pick up its cable-customer crumbs. Those include Liberty-controlled Charter Communications, which earlier this month held talks with Comcast about buying its 3 million subs, sources said.

That would be a reversal from earlier this year, when Comcast was discussing a deal to buy subs from Charter. At that time, Charter appeared poised to acquire Time Warner Cable before Comcast swooped in with a surprise bid.

With Comcast’s stock down 13 percent since the deal was announced, media analyst Craig Moffett questioned Comcast’s claim of $1.5 billion in cost savings if it has to give up 3 million — or more — subscribers, equal to about 25 percent of Time Warner’s Cable customer base.

“It is possible that Comcast would divest even more subscribers beyond the 3 million to appease the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] and the DOJ [Department of Justice], which would presumably further reduce any synergies from the deal,” Moffett wrote in a research note.

Comcast is expected to file paperwork with the Justice Department in the next few days. Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday delayed an April 2 hearing on the proposed deal until April 9.
Reps for Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter declined comment.