New York – Time Warner Inc., which reported a higher first-quarter profit Wednesday, also said that it is in advanced discussions with Douglas County-based Liberty Media Corp. to buy Liberty’s 50 percent interest in Court TV.
The deal, if reached, would give Time Warner full ownership of the cable channel.
Henry Schlieff, chief executive of Court TV, will lose his position but remain as chairman, according to Multichannel News, a cable-industry publication.
Separately, Time Warner is also talking with Liberty about redeeming a major portion of Liberty’s stake in the company for a combination of cash and some nonstrategic assets. Liberty, which owns about 4 percent of Time Warner, has expressed an interest in acquiring the Atlanta Braves baseball team, which Time Warner has been looking to sell. The deal has tax advantages but has raised questions in Atlanta about Liberty’s potential role as a team owner.
Media analyst Jessica Reif Cohen of Merrill Lynch told investors in a recent note that Time Warner would be able to “substantially increase” earnings at Court TV by folding it into its Turner Networks subsidiary and reduce nonprogramming costs such as advertising sales. Turner has a large group of cable networks including CNN, TCM and the Cartoon Network.
Chief executive Richard Parsons said the firm was still on track to close its purchase – along with Comcast Corp. – of the cable assets of Greenwood Village-based Adelphia Communications Corp. by July 31.
Profit at New York-based Time Warner jumped nearly 60 percent to $1.46 billion, or 32 cents a share, in the January-March period from $915 million, or 19 cents per share, a year ago, as revenues rose 1 percent to $10.46 billion. Earnings were driven by strong results in cable TV and a gain from selling its book group.
The sale of Time Warner Book Group to Lagardere SCA, a French media and defense conglomerate, resulted in a gain of $206 million in the quarter.
The Denver Post contributed to this report.
