Time Warner Telecom is much smaller and less well-heeled than its name suggests, but the Denver-based telecom service provider is doing far better than anyone might have thought. In fact, it's doing so well, it may be living up to the reputation of its long-standing entertainment industry brand name, even as it looks to abandon that name.
If that's all a little confusing, so is Time warner Telecom's history. The company was founded in the early 1990s as a joint venture of Time Warner and former Bell company U.S. West to roll out cable-based residential telephony, among other services. It later ended its affiliation with Time Warner, and opted to focus on business services, but it still has a licensing deal to use the brand name through next year. At one point within the last year, it seemed about to abandon that name early for another, but then decided not to make the change.
What is certain is that the company has become a force in the carrier Ethernet market and is on the verge of profitability. Its success has made it a hot topic of conversation among M&A speculators, who most recently suggested it could be acquired by Qwest. For a further look at Time Warner Telecom, see this recent piece in The Denver Post.