Introduction to the company
Warner cable communications is an American cable telecommunications company. It is a $165 billon mega merger company. It is a product that was formed after the merging of AOL and The Time Warner it was approved by the FCC in the year 2001, it has 31 operation divisions and it operates within 28 states. Its headquarters are in Northeastern New York City. The Time Warner Cable is the largest known media merger. In addition it has other corporate offices in Columbus, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; Cambridge, Massachusetts and Herndon, Virginia. This company was originally controlled by Time Warner (Nathanson et al. 92).
In March, 2009, the company launched its operations and also restructured them. It is now an independent company though continues using Time Warner brand under license. Time Warner cable owns sports channels and local news and it is not affiliated with national cable channels like CNN. This company offers media and entertainment and power house integrated communication on phones, television, computer, and wireless devices (Wolzein and Haddad 3; Bodie 975).
Time Warner Cable was founded through merging of Time Inc’s cable television, Warner Cable and American Communications Corporation, in 1989. It also incorporates some of the remains of QUBE TV service (Nathanson et al. 91). The company also launched Road Running High Speed Online, a cable modem service in 1995. Plans of acquisition of Paragon Cable by Warner also began the same year. Before the spin out in March 2009, the Warner had The Warner Cable as its subsidiary. Before 2009, the company owned 84% share in Time Warner Cable (Nathanson et al. 92). Those who did not have shares in the Time Warner each were given 0.084570 shares for every share owned thus making The Time Warner cable the largest (Malone and Turner 104).
Pricing
Time Warner requires the user to make payments before installation of the service. It also requires one to pay deposit in case one wants more services or equipment to be added to his account yet the account has not been kept current or if the credit status alters. Once the account is terminated and The Warner’s equipment returned as required by the applicable law, then the deposit is refunded in forty five days’ time. If some of the equipment are missing then the deposit is refunded less the amount. However the channels are not available in all areas therefore for one to receive HD channels, one is required to subscribe to the standard definition channel. To receive some of the digital packages, one is required to have digital converters and digital services. For one it acquires the premium demand services it is expected that they subscribe to the resultant premium channel. The digital converter at Time Warner is convenient in watching numerous channels since some channels are found in more than one package. The pricing and programming is not fixed thus it is prone to change and this applies to installation of apparatus, fees and taxes (Angwin and Martin 34).
The worst flop of the company however was in March 2000 when the internet boom ended. Many internet companies witnessed their investors dry up and their prices fell significantly. This failure affected The Time Warner Cable significantly since those companies were its advertising agents.
Product
The company is an entertainment and media entity offering cable, networks, internet services, and filmed entertainment.
The company’s division network consists: of pay television programming, pay television, sports franchise cable networks, services, and broadcast television network.
The filmed entertainment category includes: theatre productions and television program distribution, home video distribution, program and character licensing, and Animation distribution.
The publishing division offers books and magazines, a segment that targets the youth interested in entertainment programs and sports updates (Nathanson et al. 91).
Culture
The Warner Time Cable is a multicultural media and thus offers items representing cultural practices from people of different parts of the world. This has therefore contributed to gloda appreciation of the different cultural behavior. This has enabled it to expand its marketplace as it attracts people globally. On the other hand lifestyles of people who watch these channels have been altered as they try imitating the lifestyles of the people they watch in the movies. We can therefore we can say that both life and art imitate each other as art is the image of the society.
Promotion Strategy
The company’s Package deal provides a toll free number and special promotion codes for specially bundled services.
In 2009 November the company’s Classic Movies invited fans to its “TCM Classic Film Festival”.
Time Warner’s Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Group launched a DVD to Blu-Ray upgrade program which will let customers select from over 50 movie titles to upgrade.
In 2010, the company introduced the customer care department composed of four people using social networking websites to assist customers anytime.
Conclusion
Time warner is apparently one company that has been able to overcome the stigma; merger of two companies can hardly be successful. Having invested a lot of capital to ensure the survival of the merger, the results are evident. However, this company represents unfinished art work. The transaction is a representation of the foundation through which a company eventually emerges to a consumer centric business. Therefore, AOL is expected to look for further acquisition openings.
Works Cited
Angwin, J. and Martin P. AOL Time Warner Narrows Loss, Meets Targets. Wall Street Journal, 2001.
Bodie, M. AOL Time Warner and the False God of Shareholder Primacy. Journal of Corporation Law, 31. 4 (2006): 975-1002.
Malone, D. and Turner, J. The Merger Of AOL And Time Warner: A Case Study. Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies, 16. 7. 2010: 103-109.
Nathanson, M. et al. Time Warner: Why We Like It from Here. Black Book - The Best of Bernstein: U.S. Edition, 2007: 91-94.
Wolzein, T. and Haddad, R. AOL/Time Warner: Finding the First $1 Billion or So in Synergies. Black Book - AOL/Time Warner: Finding the First $1 Billion or So in Synergies, 2000: 1-41.
