This week in Philly Tech History 2004: Comcast makes surprise $66 billion bid for Disney

Tom Paine


Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email

On February 11, 2004, Comcast launched a surprise, unsolicited $66 billion bid (including debt) for Walt Disney Corp., coming in a period in which Disney CEO Michael Eisner was under mounting criticism for his management of the fabled company. Many observers felt that Comcast CEO Brian Roberts' primary motivation was to get control of Disney's ESPN, which was becoming an increasingly important but costly source of programming for cable operators (a trend that has continued up to this day).

Comcast dropped its bid in late April after the value of Comcast's shares (and thus the value of its bid) fell in the interim and Disney's board declined to respond to the offer. In the mean time, though, Disney removed Eisner from the Chairman's post.

Comcast finally got its multimedia giant a few years later on January 29, 2011, when it completed its $30 billion merger with GE's NBCU.




permalink

Wondering about who's running anti-Comcast ads on social media? Its TiVo

Tom Paine


Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email

Comcast takes away features, hikes up prices and hopes you’ll just continue to take it.

— Americans for Better Entertainment (@AmericansBetter) October 23, 2018

Update 11/15: A Whois lookup confirms that the site is indeed registered to TiVo. Why TiVo is taking this anonymous approach, but at the same time its revealing its corporate name in Whois, is puzzling. Is its purpose to collect a database of respondents for future use? Perhaps for its legal battle vs Comcast? I really don't know.



WHOIS search results

Domain Name: AMERICANSFORBETTERENTERTAINMENT.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2314356878_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar URL: http://www.markmonitor.com
Updated Date: 2018-09-25T19:42:57Z
Creation Date: 2018-09-25T19:42:56Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2020-09-25T19:42:56Z
Registrar: MarkMonitor Inc.
Registrar IANA ID: 292
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abusecomplaints@markmonitor.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.2083895740
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Name Server: NS1.TIVO.COM
Name Server: NS2.TIVO.COM
Name Server: NS3.TIVO.COM
DNSSEC: unsigned
URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/
>>> Last update of whois database: 2018-11-15T20:40:43Z <<< I've been trying to identify the organization behind Americans for Better Entertainment, whomever that may be, that's been running these ant-Comcast advertisements on social media over the past two months. This is what the campaign's Facebook page looks like.


Two of the people who commented on Facebook suggested that TiVo was behind the ads, although its from a tiny sample.

DOJ official: Evidence, not Trump tweets, led to Comcast probe https://t.co/NmJud1ynu2

— tom paine (@phillytechnews) November 14, 2018

My thought was it could be the American Cable Association, which represents smaller cable companies, who have pushed DOJ into opening up an antitrust investigation into Comcast. Trump tweeted favorable about the ACA on Monday:

American Cable Association has big problems with Comcast. They say that Comcast routinely violates Antitrust Laws. “These guys are acting much worse, and have much more potential for damage to consumers, than anything AT&T-Time Warner would do.” Charlie Gasparino

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 12, 2018

Any hints? Email me at phillytechnews@gmail.com.

A different point of view on Comcast / Disney / 21st Century Fox outcomes

Dan Primack (Axios Pro Rata) gives an alternative view on Comcast/Disney/Fox:


Unconventional wisdom: It may be time for Brian Roberts and Bob Iger to put their animosity and egos aside, and at least consider a Comcast-Disney merger. It would largely solve each company's primary problem (content for Comcast, distribution for Disney) and the added firepower could let them overpay for Sky without also overpaying for Fox (thus guaranteeing Comcast much of the international distribution it craves). It's not a perfectly elegant solution, particularly since ABC would probably have to be carved out. But, as things currently stand, the only person who knows he'll be smiling at the end is Rupert Murdoch.



https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-pro-rata-a94f3b40-b748-4864-9249-
bf09e37c39eb.html

Comcast is fighting hard to remain a top-tier media/telecom firm, but Primack suggests it
may not have enough financial weight to maintain that status during the ongoing consolidation.

2016 Gettysburg Address: Trump: Would not approve an AT&T / Time Warner deal, and would seek to break up Comcast / NBCU

Tom Paine

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader







In his speech at Gettysburg today, Donald Trump began by criticizing, among other things, what he sees as a concentration of power in a few media companies.

He said that if an AT&T / Time Warner combination came before him as President, it would not be approved. He also said that Comcast + NBCU was too powerful, and his administration would move to break it up.


"Additionally, Comcast's purchase of NBC concentrates far too much power in one massive entity that is trying to tell the voters what to think and what to do. Deals like this destroy democracy," Trump said.

"We'll look at breaking those deals up like that and other deals like that. This should have never ever been approved in the first place. They are trying to poison the mind of the American voter."

Trump also attacked Amazon for not paying (he must have meant not collecting) taxes. Amazon customers are now required to pay sales tax on their Amazon purchases in 29 states.

Trump comment's followed his complaints about media bias, against his campaign specifically.

Trump has several gripes against NBC (including, presumably, whomever leaked that video), and has been a frequent critic of the coverage of him by CNN (Time Warner) and the Washington Post, owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Weekend Highlights: Comcast Promotes Marcien Jenckes to President, Advertising; Feds investigate Uber over use of tool to evade Philly authorities

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Comcast Promotes Marcien Jenckes to President, Advertising (Multichannel News)

PTC holding the course and sticking to its story (GraphicSpeak)

CenturyLink Pushes OTT TV Launch to Early Q3 (Multichannel News)
CenturyLink will be rolling out the OTT product to customers in its own footprint as well as nationally.

Feds investigate Uber over use of tool to evade Philly authorities (NewsWorks)

Shareholder advisors challenge SAP board in row over pay
(Reuters)
McDermott's comp doesn't seem out of line by US standards.

New offices in Cuba, Philadelphia part of Quebec's expanding international presence (Montreal Gazette)

IBM: If Buffett’s Selling, So Should You, Says Bernstein (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)

4/20: Analysts see Verizon-Comcast combination as a tough sell; Verizon earnings, revenue miss Street estimates as wireless sales fall year-over-year

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Analysts see Verizon-Comcast combination as a tough sell (SNL)

Verizon earnings, revenue miss Street estimates as wireless sales fall year-over-year (CNBC)

Verizon CEO Comments About Media M&A “Taken Out Of Context” – Update (Deadline)

Verizon Loses 13,000 FiOS Pay TV Subs in First Quarter (Hollywood Reporter)

$VZ CFO says rise of OTT/vMVPDs, mobile offerings and more aggressive competition led to net loss of video subs in Q1 #goodluckbundle

— Rich Greenfield (@RichBTIG) April 20, 2017

🥞LOL, @Verizon. You OK? Cause nobody sucks this much unless you’re #VerHIGHzon https://t.co/bZYQlHl5yt

— John Legere (@JohnLegere) April 20, 2017

Billtrust, CardConnect Partner To Support Invoice Payments Via Card (Pymnts)
Two leading area companies hook up.

An X-ray of what Amazon really looks like.

Alexa team almost half the size of retail.

And look at the big blue AWS area.

Wake up call pic.twitter.com/hgPFB5MNlw

— Brian Roemmele (@BrianRoemmele) April 20, 2017

Beacons help Waze users navigate Pittsburgh's tricky tunnel exits (Marketplace)

Comcast Joins LoRA Alliance (Multichannel News)
Will host IoT-focused organization’s all-members rendezvous in June in Philadelphia.

Oracle’s PaaS/IaaS progress – becoming real
(Brian Sommer / Diginomica)

Siemens Healthineers buys health tech firm
(Philly.com)

Baseball CFO Looks to Win with CPM Software (CFO)
Philly native, ex-Comcast guy.

4/13: Windstream to acquire Broadview Networks; Comcast Gets Unshackled With NBC Deal Curbs Expiring Next Year

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Free TV? Viacom, AMC, Discovery Said Eyeing Online Bundle (Bloomberg)

FCC Could Announce Broadcaster Auction Results on Thursday (Reuters via Fortune)

That's today. Big news could be what Comcast has won.

T-Mobile spends $8 billion for 45% of spectrum at FCC auction (Ars Technica)

T-Mobile wants to paint the country purple, or whatever shade that is.

Comcast will receive $481.6 million from auctioning spectrum it controlled in 3 TV markets; it invested $1.7 billion to acquire spectrum, less than some had anticipated.

Moffett: Comcast Bought Less Spectrum Than Expected (Multichannel News)

Comcast Gets Unshackled With NBC Deal Curbs Expiring Next Year (Bloomberg)

Hulu’s live TV service rumored to cost $39.99 per month (The Verge)



Windstream Strikes a Second Time, to Acquire Broadview (Telecom Ramblings)

Broadview has considerable operations in the Philly area, emanating mostly from its 2006 acquisition of ATX.

goTenna Series B fuels vision to make short-range communication possible anywhere on the planet (TechCrunch)

Penn-related MentorTech Ventures is one of its investors.

Former Flex CEO Wants to Upend the Multi-Trillion Dollar Construction Industry (Fortune)

A new Unicorn, interesting strategy.

NYC’s beleaguered startup scene looks for a win with Yext IPO (VentureBeat)

4/7: PA native Urban Rumored for Trump Chief of Staff; MapR File System selected by SAP for cloud storage layer

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




Urban Rumored for Trump Chief of Staff (Politics PA)

A western PA native and West Point grad, David Urban has Temple and Penn degrees, spent time at Ballard Spahr, and served as Arlen Specter's chief of staff. Ran Trump campaign in PA.


Alphabet Moves Two Top Google Fiber Executives Off Project (Bloomberg)

GOP Said Moving Toward `Unenforceable' Version of Net Neutrality (Bloomberg)


Xfinity Home’s New Message (Multichannel News)

Comcast’s New Mobile Service Is a Good Deal, But Maybe Not Good Enough (Wired)

Comcast Is Wooing Cord Cutters Over Heavy Mobile Users (Fortune)

MapR File System selected by SAP for cloud storage layer (ZDNet)

Amazon.com wins $1.5 billion tax dispute over IRS
(CNBC)
With a little help from Morgan Lewis.

Philly startup SocialLadder wins “best management team” from N.J. Tech Council (Philly.com)

Online auto parts company Turn5 plans expansion, will add 200 jobs (Delco Times)

The $90 Billion Investor Who’s Out to Fire Wall Street (Bloomberg)

Comcast Sets Xfinity Mobile Wireless Launch; Salesforce celebrates capping of tallest building west of Chicago

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Comcast Sets Xfinity Mobile Wireless Launch With Verizon, Promising Big Savings (Variety)

Comcast: How Will ‘Xfinity Mobile’ Define Success? Asks BTIG (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)

Comcast Enters Wireless Business With $45-a-Month Service (Bloomberg)

Xfinity Mobile Isn't a WiFi Phone Service (Mari Silbey / Light Reading)



Salesforce is celebrating the capping of the tallest building west of Chicago, and the views are astounding (CNBC)

⚡️ “We Celebrate "Topping Off" Salesforce Tower!” by @salesforcehttps://t.co/k9oKcMCVbn

— studentforce (@studentforce) April 6, 2017

Comcast's new tower: 1,121 ft

Salesforce's new tower: 1,070 ft


Reports: Lyft hails another $500 million
(Axios)

Philadelphia’s Chamber Of Commerce Sues To Halt City Pay Equity Law (CBS Local)


Office Practicum moves into Fort Washington Office Park
(Ambler Gazette)

What's happening in the Cable patch? Comcast said to gain rights to offer some Web TV channels nationwide; WideOpenWest files for IPO (3/24/2017)

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email





Comcast Said to Gain Rights to Offer Web TV Service Nationwide (Bloomberg)

Arris Raises Some New Ideas About Ruckus (Multichannel News)

Trump Praises Charter’s Already Announced Plans to Add 20,000 Jobs (Fortune)

Comcast puts Google on alert over ad crisis (Philly.com)

Republican Red-Tape Purge May Help AT&T, Comcast Use Data (Bloomberg)

Boulder's Boomtown teams with Comcast NBC Universal on Atlanta accelerator (Boulder Daily Camera)
Boulder-based Boomtown will manage Comcast NBC Universal's Atlanta accelerator, to be known as 'The Farm'.



Xfinity Communities Joins Fiber Broadband Association (CED Magazine)

Just what is Xfinity Communities? "We work with building and property owners, developers, leasing agents, and homeowners' associations to provide residents an entertainment experience like no other." https://www.xfinity.com/xfinitycommunities



Raycom: AT&T pushing U-verse blackouts to drive customers to DirecTV (FierceCable)

AT&T May Close UVerse.com In May (TVAnswerman)

Dodgers TV standoff lives on as AT&T, Justice settle lawsuit (LA Times)

WideOpenWest Files for $100M IPO in the Wake of Snap, Mulesoft (The Street)


Comcast Eyes Upstream Expansion as it Pulls Fiber Deeper (Multichannel News)

3/22: Accel leads First Round-backed HotelTonight’s $37M Series E: SAP Ariba inks Blockchain Supply Chain Partnership with Everledge

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email





Accel leads First Round-backed HotelTonight’s $37M Series E (TechCrunch)
Its been an uphill climb at times for HotelTonight, but this bolsters its credentials.

Netflix still has a huge lead in the streaming wars, but Hulu’s smaller service has loyal users (Recode)

Fandango Will Start Selling Movie Merchandise, Including Apparel and Memorabilia (Variety)

Cox’s Finkelstein: DOCSIS 3.1 upstream bandwidth issue an ‘iceberg’ (FierceCable)

SAP Ariba Inks Blockchain Supply Chain Partnership With Everledger
(CoinDesk)

"When we bought cloud assets we had to integrate back to the core and I know that wasn't always smooth." -@BillRMcDermott at #SAPARIBALIVE pic.twitter.com/v9YHCA4aeb

— Craig Powers (@Powers_ASUG) March 22, 2017

.@AccentureLifSci Digital #LifeSciences Marketplace drives change in #healthtech via #dataintegration: https://t.co/y9PxwdY683 #healthIT

— Dell Boomi (@boomi) March 22, 2017

Digital health is helping to fuel the city's economy
(Crain's NY)

How would Tim Armstrong fit in to Uber culture? https://t.co/srcY995Yhd via @sai

— tom paine (@phillytechnews) March 22, 2017

NJFX to Expand Jersey Data Center Campus that Links to Submarine Cables (Data Center Knowledge)

Adtech Is in for a Rough 2017. The Visible Measures Collapse Is Just the Beginning
(Fortune Term Sheet)


'Hillbilly Elegy' author J.D. Vance has a new job
(Axios)

Comcast's busy day in the news: Philly accelerator; Expanded Energy marketing; Pittsburgh & Denver investments

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




Seeking an Uber in Philly, Comcast will boost tech start-ups with 'accelerator' in new tower (Philly.com)

Why NBC Universal Got In on Snap’s IPO (Fortune Data Sheet)

Comcast: Our Network's Ready for 5G (Light Reading)
Well, the backhaul part anyway.

Report: Sprint “betting big on Trump,” could merge with T-Mobile or Comcast (Ars Technica)

Comcast Cable Boss Talks Regulatory Outlook, Digital Rivals, NBCUniversal Collaboration (Hollywood Reporter)


Comcast, Crius Team on ‘Turnkey' Energy Service Platform (Multichannel News)

Comcast to build out $20 million ethernet network downtown (Pittsburgh Business Times)

New media and technology center connects students with Comcast (CU Denver Today)

2/21: Comcast’s ‘Tech ETA’ feature goes wide; Probe of China trader shows how Comcast learned DreamWorks was for sale

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Comcast’s ‘Tech ETA’ Feature Goes Wide (Multichannel News)

Probe of China traders shows how Comcast learned DreamWorks was For Sale (Philly Deals)

Tosh in deeper financial doo-doo as banks turn up the pressure (The Register)
Its Westinghouse problem.






Lumos ends fiber spin-out plans, sells to private equity firm EQT Infrastructure for $950M (FierceTelecom)

Following Lumos’ sale, analyst fingers T-Mobile’s possible interest in Zayo (Fierce Telecom)

Google Fiber’s Webpass internet service coming to Seattle, job posting reveals (Geekwire)

Verizon Stock the Cheapest It’s Been in Fifteen Years, Says Moffett Nathanson (Barron's Tech Trader Daily)


Outcome Health snags Salesforce exec (Crain's Chicago Business)
Outcome Health is the former Context Media.


GE’s secret weapon is its training center on Hudson River (Boston Globe)

2/14: NBC News names Oppenheim president, returns Deborah Turness to Europe; Closing the digital gap in pharma

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email

Foxconn group to see iPhone 8 windfall in the second half of 2017 (South China Morning Post)

Apple’s Eddy Cue says the future of TV is much more interactive (The Verge)

Here’s What an Apple Exec Says About a Big Media Acquisition (Fortune)

NBC News Names Noah Oppenheim President, Deborah Turness Moves to International Role (Hollywood Reporter)
NBC takes a 25 percent stake in the European network Euronews.

Comcast to Launch ‘Xfinity Stream’ App on Feb. 28
(Multichannel News)

SAP: Hidden Figures (Vinnie Mirchandani / Enterprise Irregulars)

Amazon Is Quietly Becoming a Major Player in Enterprise Software (The Street)


Closing the digital gap in pharma (McKinsey & Co.)

Untapped Opportunity Lies in Pharma’s Supply Chain
(Supply Chain Executive)

Linode challenges DigitalOcean with its new $5 instances (TechCrunch)
Linode's been mostly quite for a while. Meanwhile, no word on when it might complete its previously announced move to Philadelphia.

Excited about our partnership with @Rubicontalent - thanks @markjburns88 #SportsBiz https://t.co/5UGjE6NMM1

— Wayne Kimmel (@waynekimmel) February 15, 2017

Sunday highlights: Wharton MBA investor charged with insider trading in Comcast-DreamWorks Animation deal; New FCC chair closely guards strategy

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




Nets Sell Jersey Sponsorship to Koch-Backed Company Infor (Bloomberg)

SEC charges Chinese investor with insider trading in Comcast-DreamWorks Animation deal (LA Times)


New FCC chair closely guards his strategy to restructure net neutrality (Reuters)

Gannett, McClatchy close out a dismal year (Ken Docter/Politico)

Amazon cloud leader Andy Jassy sizes up the competition in rare public remarks about rivals
(GeekWire)

Amazon spent just $103M on acquisitions last year, down sharply amid broader tech M&A slowdown (GeekWire)

Retailers Are Offering Free Phone Charging to Get Customers in the Door (Bloomberg)
Features ChargeItSpot.

Pinterest and Curalate are now pinned - to each other (Philly.com)




Could New York tech company's move to NIZ signal a trend? (Allentown Morning Call)

Foxconn's Sharp may break ground on $7 billion U.S. plant in first half: source; Hulu focused on avoiding DirecTV Now-like bugs, Fox's Murdoch says

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Japan's Sharp may break ground on $7 billion U.S. plant in first half: source (Reuters)
Says nothing about where it might be located. Previous reports had suggested a preference for Pennsylvania.

Foxconn: OLED iPhones A Growth Engine; Citi Upgrades (Barron's Asia)

New CableLabs Optical Tech Promises Big Bandwidth Boost (Light Reading)


Hulu ‘very, very focused’ on avoiding DirecTV Now-like bugs, Fox's Murdoch says (FierceCable)

Apple Hires Amazon’s Fire TV Head to Run Apple TV Business (Bloomberg)

Pittsburgh has finally realized it’s in a toxic relationship with Uber (Quartz)


Hal Rosenbluth's new health-care venture (Philly.com)


Spotify and AccuWeather team to match music, mood and monsoons (TechCrunch)

Connected home revenue in the US grew 57-percent in 2016, according to NPD (TechCrunch)

Vanguard Net Fund Inflow Dwarfed Its Peers' In 2016 (IBD)

Blockchain: 'A novel solution to the problem of trust' beyond Bitcoin (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

2/7: Siemens, Bentley Systems plan utility design solutions; Workday scores Amazon as Its latest big name customer

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email




Siemens, Bentley Systems plan utility design solutions (Construction News)

BUZZFEED VS. TRUMP (The Verge)

A Deeper Dive into Comcast's OTT-as-a-Service (BTR)

Moody’s: Telecom M&A to Continue (Multichannel News)
Sees Verizon's MVNO agreements with cable possibly evolving toward 5G LTE.










Unisys Corp. announces 178 layoffs (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)
Consolidating more activities in Augusta. Is there an end game with Unisys?

Workday Scores Amazon as Its Latest Big Name Customer (Fortune)

AWS cloud cash share: Bigger than Microsoft, IBM, Google COMBINED (The Register)

Oracle in the cloud: The analyst conversation
(ZDNet)

Teva, CEO part ways (Philadelphia Business Journal)

PPG, Universal Display increasing production capacity at Ohio plant (Pittsburgh Business Times)

Morgan Stanley partners with tech firms to boost wealth business (Reuters)

New Jersey launches Open Data Initiative, appoints chief data officer (StateScoop)

1/31: Comcast Is About to Sell You Cable TV Without the Cable Box?: Arris briefly plunges, but has own response

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Taxi Medallion Prices Are Plummeting, Endangering Loans (Bloomberg)

Comcast Is About to Sell You Cable TV Without the Cable Box (Bloomberg)
#Arris International PLC down as much as 9.3 percent today before recovering most of that.

Arris Builds Next-Gen TiVo (Donahue Report)
Arris' answer?


The FCC won’t force cable companies to unlock their set-top boxes after all (Recode)









Concur co-founders on their new healthcare tech adventure, and why the space is so interesting to disrupt (GeekWire)


AT&T's multi-gigabit wireless over power lines heading to trials this year (Ars Technica)

Softbank Is Reportedly Considering a $1 Billion Investment in WeWork (Fortune)

Walmart Unleashes an Ingenious New Way to Beat Down Amazon (The Street via Philly.com)

PayPal Has Been Talking With Amazon on Payments, CEO Says (Bloomberg)
Venmo could be major beneficiary.


SAP starts making Slack bots for its enterprise software (VentureBeat)

Thoma Bravo explores sale of Global Health Exchange-sources (Reuters)

Comcast Earnings beat expectations: Expanding X1, looking to wireless launch

Tom Paine

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader

On a morning where the big question was the extent to which Verizon and Charter might be engaged in M&A talks, Comcast released its earnings for Q4 2016 and the full year.


Revenue grew 9.2% and adjusted EPS grew 9.9% for the quarter, beating expectations. Continuing the reversal of a long-term trend, video customer net additions were 80,000 for the quarter, and for 2017 Comcast had its best video customer results in 10 Years, with 161,000 net additions.

Programming expense rose just a tick over 10% in 2016, but Comcast expects it to rise 13% in 2017 due to the latest round of rights agreements before moderating the following year.

NBCU revenue grew 13.0% in the quarter, as Theme Parks continued gushing growth and profits.

Business Services, which grew by 16.1% for the year, is now at a $5.5 billion annual run rate.

Comcast is increasing its dividend by 15% per share, splitting its stock two-for-one, and expects to repurchase $5 billion of stock this year.

Comcast said penetration of its X1 interface is expected to increase from 48% at year-end to the low 60s over the next year.


Comcast indicated a mid-year launch for its wireless offering (likely in just a few areas to begin with). Chairman & CEO Brian Roberts said he expects "most popular mobile devices" to be available for the service. Roberts also said that after reaching limited scale, Comcast expected each incremental customer to be NPV (Net Present Value) profitable. CFO Mike Cavanagh said to expect a $200 to $300 million drag on operating cash flow from wireless until Comcast starts breaking it out separately. Beyond that, the company was rather tight-lipped about wireless.

There seems to be a developing consensus that wireless and cable assets, in some combination, are the best way to provide 5G LTE. Cable's backhaul capacity, and its indoors networking capabilities ( where cellular is weak on its own) are valuable assets to the wireless industry.


Round Numbers


Charter: Marketcap - $90bn LTD - $35bn

Comcast: Marketcap - $181bn LTD - $49bn

Verizon: Marketcap - $200bn LTD - $104bn

AT&T: Marketcap -$260bn LTD -$113bn


Source: Yahoo Finance as of close 1/26/2017. AT&T as of 1/27 morning.

Comcast beats on earnings and revenue
(CNBC)

Comcast Backs Bet on X1
Plans to expand X1 penetration beyond 60% in 2017, seek more licensing opportunities (Multichannel News)

Comcast Chief Pressed on Wireless Rollout Plan, Regulatory Environment Under Trump (Variety)

Cox thanks white-label X1 for best video performance since 2008 (FierceCable)

Verizon, Charter Talks Heating Up? Malone Vision Key (IBD)


Verizon Exploring Potential Charter Merger (Report) (Variety)

Verizon CEO Said to Approach Maffei About Possible Charter Deal (Bloomberg)

Verizon: Reasons Charter Speculation Makes No Sense, Per Wells (Barron's Tech Trader Daily0

Highlights 1/23: Campbell's joins the Today Show and Vox Media for branded content; Union League members form Broad Street Angels investor fund

Follow @phillytechnews

 Subscribe in a reader
Subscribe to Philadelphia Tech News by Email



Campbell's Joins the Today Show and Vox Media for a Branded Content Series (Adweek)
In Comcast's tent.

Warby Parker debuts first Philly store on Saturday (Philly.com)

Union League members form Broad Street Angels investor fund (Philly.com: Philly Deals)

This afternoon, I was informed that @POTUS @realDonaldTrump designated me the 34th Chairman of the @FCC. It is a deeply humbling honor. pic.twitter.com/Joza18aP33

— Ajit Pai (@AjitPaiFCC) January 23, 2017

Comcast's Cohen on Pai:

“We congratulate Ajit Pai on his appointment as Chair of the Federal Communications Commission. He has served with great distinction as a Commissioner over the past four and a half years, and has demonstrated that he is highly qualified to lead the Commission. We commend his tireless efforts to develop and support policies that benefit American consumers and spur greater investment and innovation in broadband technologies to connect all Americans and drive job creation. This is a terrific appointment for the American consumer and the companies the FCC regulates and we look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Pai in his new role.”

https://twitter.com/ComcastPolicy/status/823652336916631553


Verizon, Comcast Merger Talk A 'Nonstarter,' Says JPMorgan (Investor's Business Daily)

Very rough conditions in the ocean right now. A wave buoy off Barnegat Light is showing waves over 18 feet 💨🌊 pic.twitter.com/XPTDqKK84b

— HC Beach Patrol (@HCBeachPatrol) January 23, 2017

Dish Upgraded, Stock Rises On Verizon Takeout Scenarios (Investor's Business Daily)

Should we want a bipartisan FCC? (Mark Jamison / TechPolicyDaily)

What a great acquisition for both @Ipipeline and @Resonant. A #LifeInsurance automation dream! Congrats! https://t.co/QmmSGfgQOJ

— Samantha Chow (@SamChow74) January 23, 2017

Analyst: Finisar 'Disqualified' From Big China Customer Hauwei, Stock Falls (Investor's Business Daily)
Finisar still has a presence in the Philly area from its 2008 acquisition of Horsham-based Optium.

IBM Touts Trump-Pleasing Hiring Plans While Firing Thousands (Bloomberg)

Cool offices: LiquidHub https://t.co/LhoAnqn2xB via @PHLBizJournal

— Peter Key (@PeterLKey) January 23, 2017

OpenText Buys Documentum, Faces Competition as Veeva Goes Bigger on ECM (CMSWire)



Mark Hurd co-CEO Oracle provides NetSuite update (Diginomica)