Cox is inching up cable ladder

ATLANTA -- Cox Communications is signing up 6,000 new customers a month to one of its three digital services, the company reported at its annual meeting Thursday.

So far, the company has 67,000 high-speed Internet access customers, 75,000 for digital TV and 28,000 telephone customers.

"We're the only company doing it all," said Cox Communications President and Chief Executive Jim Robbins. "Our core business strategy is to execute this and executive it well."

Cox Communications provides these services through its new digital networks. The company is trying to persuade many of its current 3.8 million customers to sign on to one or more of its new digital services.

Overall, the Atlanta-based cable TV operator reported a banner year at its annual meeting, held at the company's headquarters in suburban Atlanta.

In the past year, Cox Communications has added two big new systems in Las Vegas and Tuscon, Ariz.

It has announced two other major purchases in the past several weeks. These purchases will add systems in Northern Virginia and in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas.

When these purchases are concluded, expected some time at the end of the year, Cox Communications will have 5 million subscribers. That would make it, at least for the moment, the fourth largest cable TV operator.

"Clearly, we felt the need to continue to grow or be left at the side of the road," said Robbins, who has said the company continues to look for other acquisitions.

Acquisitions have helped push up the company's stock, which has grown in value more than 72 percent in the past fiscal year.

The company now has a market capitalization of about $24 billion.

Cox Communications has also done well in some of its other investments in the past several years. For example, the company's stake in At home, its provider of Internet access, has grown from an initial value of $365 million in 1997 to $2.3 billion today.

In other news, Cox Communications directors approved Thursday a 2-for-1 stock split, effective today. Directors also approved an increase in the number of all its different classes of stock.

Class A common, for example, will grow by 334 million shares. At present there are 316 million shares of Class A stock.

Robbins

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