Cox Communications President Pat Esser’s headlining of the UBS conference call yesterday raised some eyebrows in the industry. The headline of a Multichannel News article, “Cox Holds Call; Not Going Public,” answered a question apparently on the minds of many investors when they saw Esser would be featured in securities firm’s periodic “Frontline” series of conference calls. Cox going public again? No, Esser emphasized. His reason for accepting analyst Aryeh Bourkoff’s invitation to participate in the conference call: “We haven’t done one of these in two years, but I thought so much was going on in the business and so many questions were being asked of us, this is a good way to get answers out into the market to do that.” Esser added, “We think that our success over the last decade, and particularly over the last couple of years, proves the power of our network and offerings, and validates the business strategy we’ve been following for more than a decade. So, even though we’re private, we think our recent results are a model for what Cable can achieve.”

In other coverage of Esser's address, the satellite industry’s SkyREPORT took note of Cox’s success in signing up former satellite TV customers in an article entitled “Cable Poaching Satellite Subs Like 1-2-3.” And CableFAX Daily opined that Cable’s publicly traded companies should be grateful to Esser:

An unexpected drop in wholesale prices undoubtedly helped drive cable operator stocks higher Tues—but MSOs might also want to send a thank-you note to Cox pres Pat Esser. Despite heading a private company, Esser held a conference call Tues with UBS analyst Aryeh Bourkoff to tout subscriber metrics and the power of the bundle.