Today's $2.5 billion bid for the music division of Time Warner is great news, and is yet another sign that the outdated conglomerate business model is finally out of fashion. For all the controversy the company has faced in recent years, Time Warner deserves credit for dumping one non-core business after another, including half of Comedy Central, a CD/DVD manufacturing division and its vanity Atlanta sports teams.

Time Warner isn't the only company enlightened enough to get out of the sports management business. Disney has sold the Anaheim Angels and News Corporation has sold the Dodgers.

The one holdout is--who else?-- Cablevision. The Dolans insist on holding on to Madison Square Garden, the Knicks, Rangers and Liberty. Maybe this is why Don Cheney's coaching contract has been extended through 2006--it's easier to renew the current contract when you also have to monitor the rollout of voice-over-cable telephone service and deal with various accounting irregularities. Last week Knicks center Dikembe Mutombo managed to commit a foul on an opening tip-off, a sure sign of another long winter for New York basketball and hockey fans.