(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Time Warner reported sharply higher earnings thanks to a cable deal with Adelphia and an emerging turnaround at its AOL unit, but investors fretted over slower new phone customer growth at the nation's second-largest cable company.
The leading media conglomerate, which owns the Time magazine publisher, Warner Bros., CNN and HBO, earned $2.3 billion in the third quarter, versus $853 million a year ago.
Revenues rose 7% to $10.9 billion, shy of the $11.1 billion estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
The earnings jump was driven by an adjustment related to its recently closed deal with Comcast to acquire the cable systems of Adelphia Communications as well as several asset sales and other one-time effects.
AOL turned in strong results, including a 46% gain in advertising revenues, as the unit executes a plan announced three months ago to overhaul its business model away from selling Internet access subscriptions and toward selling online advertising, a strategy used successfully by online rivals Google and Yahoo.
AOL's gains in advertising weren't enough to offset a 13% decline in subscription revenues in the quarter, however, leaving the unit with a total revenue fall of 3%.
Profits rose 21 % as marketing and other costs declined.
Earnings rose 28% and revenues rose 44 % at the company's cable TV unit after it absorbed new systems from Adelphia, a deal that closed July 31 and gave Time Warner an additional 3.5 million customers, bringing its total to 13.5 million.
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