Reports: AOL Time Warner shows interest in AT&T Broadband

News reports say that AOL Time Warner has joined Comcast and Cox Communications by signing a confidentiality agreement that AT&T requires all potential bidders for its broadband unit to sign.

AT&T has not determined that it will sell the unit. Originally, it planned to spin off the cable operation, but that was interrupted in July when Comcast offered $44.5 billion to buy it. AT&T rejected that bid and has since said it would welcome additional bids under the confidentiality agreement. Those bids should be filed by the end of the month, after which a decision will ultimately be made, the company has said.

AOL Time Warner could be using the confidentiality agreement as a way to peek at AT&T’s cable operations, because many industry observers believe a bid by the nation’s second-largest cable operator for AT&T’s industry-tops based of subscribers would face serious financial and legal obstacles.

--Jim Barthold, senior editor