It's the end of an era at Time Warner Cable Inc.: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Glenn Britt has announced he will retire at the end of the year.

Robert Marcus, the company's President and Chief Operating Officer, will take over as CEO from Jan. 1, 2014.

Rumors of Britt's retirement have circulated for years, but the speculation ramped up in February when The Wall Street Journal reported his departure was imminent. At that time, Time Warner had just completed a re-organization to centralize operations around three business units: Residential Services, Business Services, and Media Services. Marcus was appointed to lead all three divisions and has since been presumed heir to Britt's throne. (See TW Cable Centralizes (Almost) Everything and Rumor: TW Cable CEO to Step Down in 2013.)

Meanwhile, the shift in leadership at Time Warner comes at a time when potential merger talks are heating up. John Malone, who owns a 27 percent stake in Charter Communications Inc., has expressed his interest in buying Time Warner outright. Time Warner would rather avoid that outcome, however, and has reportedly been debating a possible merger with either Cablevision Systems Corp. or Cox Communications Inc. (See Behind Cable's Urge to Merge.)

While Britt is leaving Time Warner as CEO, he will remain on the Board of Directors in a non-executive role. Marcus has also joined the company's Board.

— Mari Silbey, Special to Light Reading Cable