"I think [Time Warner Inc. chairman] Gerry
[Levin] has a very good track record on molding together disparate organizations, and I
think the need for Gerry to be around and mold these two very disparate organizations is
very strong. As a shareholder of both companies, I would hope that he would be around for
quite a while. I don't think it really changes the landscape. There were two big
behemoths in our business before. Now one of the behemoths is quite a lot bigger."
James Robbins, CEO, Cox Communications Inc.
"Time Warner has always regarded themselves as
large enough to go it alone, whereas the rest of us always perceive scale economics as
requiring the cooperation of a number of cable operators It's a tribute to
[Levin] and the Time Warner board that both companies and their boards are willing to take
the risk here of a no-collar, straight-up [merger] -- the same structure we
[Tele-Communications Inc.] did with AT&T [Corp.]. I thought we had a good chance of
merging @Home into something like AOL [America Online Inc.] at some point."
John Malone, chairman, Liberty Media Group
"Let's be blunt: Anybody who thinks open
access is going to go away is delusional. The top two cable companies say they're
committed to it, but the rest of the cable industry hasn't committed. They're
wishing it would go away."
Scott Cleland, managing director, Legg Mason Wood Walker's Precursor
Group
"Everybody reports to somebody anyway. Steve
[Case] isn't gong to be a problem for Gerry. Steve is a great guy, and Gerry and
Steve are going to like each other."
Peter Barton, former CEO, Liberty Media Group
"The power that brands have to drive deals
like this is pretty astounding. [In the Internet world], there's nobody as big as
AOL. Yahoo! [Inc.] and the others are different animals."
Char Beales, president, Cable & Telecommunications Association for
Marketing
"I was pretty stunned. Being a member of this
industry, you hear a lot of things. I am awed by their ability to have kept something like
that as quiet as they did. I really respected it."
Michael Willner, CEO, Insight Communications Co. Inc.
"We feel that this is very good. It's a
boost to the strategy we're pushing: delivering multiple products through this
broadband platform. The more choices, the more innovation, the more competition, the
better."
Doug Seserman, senior vice president of marketing, AT&T Broadband &
Internet Services
"That's definitely a card they can play
that they couldn't play before."
David Olson, franchising director, Portland, Ore., on AOL using the Time
Warner deal to persuade AT&T to offer open access
"If AOL is going to become an even more
ubiquitous name and more powerful brand than it already is, operators would find it
advantageous to associate themselves with AOL. It could become the 'HBO [Home Box
Office] brand' for high-speed access."
Craig Leddy, senior vice president of market analysis, The Myers Group LLC
"We're excited to have AOL as a new
partner."
Vicki Lins, vice president of marketing and communications, Adlink (the Los Angeles
interconnect)
