Comcast Said to Weigh Subscriber Spinoff With Time Warner Deal

Comcast is weighing options for how to divest about 3 million cable subscribers as part of a takeover of Time Warner Cable -- including spinning them off in a new publicly traded company, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Regulators may push for the spin-out because it would create a new competitor, one of the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. A new company formed in such a way would be the fourth-largest US cable company by subscribers, trailing the merged Comcast-Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Charter Communications. Comcast has also received interest from several companies that want to buy the cable assets, two of the people said. Charter is interested in the assets, Liberty Media Chief Executive Officer Greg Maffei said, and Bright House Networks and Suddenlink Communications, the sixth- and seventh-largest US cable companies, have expressed interest in buying a portion of the 3 million subscribers, one person said.