Turns out the rumors were correct, DirecTV has officially announced CEO Chase Carey is resigning as of July 1, and a search for a successor is "under way." Of course, there's no word if the subsequent speculation that the company's next move after its spinoff/merger is a sale to AT&T is at all accurate, but we're sure there will be plenty of viewpoints on the subject in the weeks and months to come.

This won't affect the most of you one single bit, but for those that have a vested interested in either Time Warner, Inc. or Time Warner Cable, the details of the spinoff are now public. The tax-free separation of TWC from Time Warner will involve a dividend distribution of all of the Time Warner Cable common stock held by Time Warner to Time Warner stockholders; said distribution will be made on March 27th to Time Warner stockholders of record at 8PM on March 12th. Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bewkes noted that he was "confident that this separation would benefit Time Warner and Time Warner Cable stockholders," suggesting that the move would enable each entity to be "better positioned to compete, with capital structures more suited to their respective needs as well as greater operational, financial and strategic flexibility." Maybe TWC will get around to adding a few more HD channels now that daddy isn't looking over its shoulder 24/7, but we wouldn't bet the farm on it.

Wait, what? Time Warner Cable is still a part of Time Warner, Inc.? Weren't they supposed to split, like, almost a year ago? We've always heard that old flames are hard to extinguish, so we guess we shouldn't be too shocked to hear that this drawn-out separation is still being, well, drawn out. According to a fresh release from parent company Time Warner, it has "elected to complete the separation of the two companies through a spin-off distribution involving a pro rata dividend of all of the Time Warner Cable common stock held by Time Warner to Time Warner stockholders." If you're hungry for details beyond that, we're afraid you'll have to wait -- all we're told is that the two "continue to expect that the separation will be completed by the end of the current quarter." Cute how "continue" was thrown in there, yeah?

We knew last month that Time Warner was looking to spin off its Time Warner Cable unit, but now the nitty-gritty details are starting to surface. Parent company Time Warner, Inc. will receive a $9.25 billion one-time cash dividend in the transaction, while TWC will "borrow $10.9 billion to fund the payout to its parent, which owns 84 percent, and other shareholders." CEO Jeffrey Bewkes was quoted as saying that "Time Warner no longer needs to own a cable operator to carry its movies and TV shows because it has established brands and more options for distribution," though the exact distribution form hasn't been decided upon just yet. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Thanks, J. Goodwin]