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Comcast's Brian Roberts Not Insane to Buy NBC, Says Ex-Cable Mogul Hindery

Posted Nov 05, 2009 10:40am EST by Henry Blodget in Investing, Media, Products and Trends, Recession

Many media-industry pundits have dismissed Comcast's play for NBC as the latest foray of a deranged distribution guy (Comcast CEO Brian Roberts) obsessed with getting into the content business.

The evidence?  Roberts tried desperately to buy Disney a few years ago--over his shareholders' screams--and now he's furiously negotiating for a hobbled NBC.  All this while fellow cable-content mogul Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner is bemoaning the hard lessons his company learned when it tried to combine content and distribution into the Holy Grail of "synergy."

But Roberts isn't a madman, says Leo Hindery, managing director of private-equity firm InterMedia Partners.

Comcast's goal here is not to combine content and distribution, at least not in a way that anyone will be able to see.  It is simply to to take its own puny content assets and combine them with NBC's big content assets to get more scale in the content business. 

Yes, Comcast will own most of this new content company.  But to get the deal done, Hindery says, Roberts will have to swear up and down that he won't combine the content and distribution and cut himself sweetheart deals.  So that's not the main goal here.

As for the bigger question--whether cable's monopoly model will survive the onslaught of Internet delivery?

No way, says Hindery.

And that's presumably one reason why Brian Roberts is so eager to diversify.

31 Comments

Terry
Terry - Thursday November 05, 2009 10:49AM EST

I wonder how many politician they own? No Senator should be in office more than 2 terms (12 years) and no Congressmen/women should be in office more than 3 terms (6 years) otherwise they do too much harm to us all. VOTE OUT the INCUMBENTS in 2010.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Thursday November 05, 2009 10:51AM EST

This is not a good time to buy companies. Most of them are over priced. We are at the top of a major bubble that is akin to Tulip mania, South Sea bubble. http://www.tradingstocks.net/html/near_bottom.html

Helga
Helga - Thursday November 05, 2009 10:53AM EST

I REPEAT....I HAVE HONEST QUESTIONS THAT I CANT FIGURE OUT:.........1.WHY HASN'T THIS MARKET COME DOWN TO PROPER VALUATIONS? WE ARE ALL SITTING AROUND WAITING FOR IT TO CRASH; WHY WON'T IT CRASH?....... ....2.WHAT AND WHERE ARE SPROUTS OF THE NEXT BUBBLE? ................3.WHAT IS THE REAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE?.........4. WHAT DOES THE AVERAGE FAMILY THINK AND HOW ARE THEY SPENDING?

tom c
tom c - Thursday November 05, 2009 10:53AM EST

those Yankee traders are on a buying binge today

ryan j
ryan j - Thursday November 05, 2009 10:59AM EST

Another crooked company Comcast, with it's overpriced services and overpaid employees we the consumer will get screwed again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

frankmargel.com
frankmargel.com - Thursday November 05, 2009 11:04AM EST

Brian isn't insane, but the rest of the kooks are? WoW!

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Thursday November 05, 2009 11:11AM EST

JPIG the minster that terrorized innocent borrowers, shareholders. FDIC rob WaMu with JPM , wipeout the the banking market & shareholders ? Shiela Bair ! Right . The corruption and the crooks that almost end the world. They kill more people than Osama .

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Thursday November 05, 2009 11:14AM EST

I wonder if I should be buying today. Historically I have bought at the top and sold at the bottom.

frankmargel.com
frankmargel.com - Thursday November 05, 2009 11:17AM EST

Sanity is found only after the war dead are returned home and the nations that propose to prevail now live in peace. M and A moves like this have nothing to do with Main St. mentality...Give me a break, would ya? NBC is useless but too big to fail too? HELP! Laughs...bailout syndrome...works for Wall St. but not for you and me...ug!

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Thursday November 05, 2009 11:20AM EST

Will we have another 100-point plunge? No, of course not. Those days are OVER because…because…well, you know, it’s a bull thing, I guess.

frankmargel.com
frankmargel.com - Thursday November 05, 2009 11:28AM EST

Yahoo! Finance User - Thursday November 05, 2009 11:14AM EST I wonder if I should be buying today. Historically I have bought at the top and sold at the bottom. LAUGHS! BIG SMILES at this!

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Thursday November 05, 2009 12:05PM EST

Think about this - 3rd Qtr productivity up 7.5% and we have 7.2M unemployed. Looks like we won't need them after all. Ooops.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Thursday November 05, 2009 12:05PM EST

Simon - Thursday November 05, 2009 11:16AM EST My grandson has h1n1 and cant get the vaccine ? but the prisoners at gitmo received theirs yesterday ? That's Obama health care ////////////////////ya ya ya whatever, whine whine whine it's raining today that damn obama, can't get anything right I needed it to be sunny today....ya ya ya whatever, nevermind the PRIVATE copany making the vaccine is dropping the ball, ye ye ye obama's fault...never private company fault, always government ya ya ya, kneel at the feet of the private company and "free market" ya ya ya I have mine, I want more, to hell with you.....

ezshooter
ezshooter - Thursday November 05, 2009 12:06PM EST

Comcast is a poorly run company that has a monopoly on cable in my area. If they were not a monopoly, they would be out of business. Without cable we get about 3 channels because of the hills in the area. I would hate to have these Comcast bozos buy a major network.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Thursday November 05, 2009 12:10PM EST

Jobs are like a bucket of sand each time you tip it you lose sand. When it"s all gone and you put a cup back in they say look at the jobs we maid.

Chuck
Chuck - Thursday November 05, 2009 12:14PM EST

general electric is the world am buying and buying and buying and i will hold them untill the stock hit 27 dollars i guess 50 thousands shares times 13 dollars gains is 650 thousands dollars not bad in a year

frankmargel.com
frankmargel.com - Thursday November 05, 2009 12:28PM EST

Let's see, Comcast buys NBC and runs Fox news 24/7 to make a profit right? Laughs!

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Thursday November 05, 2009 12:29PM EST

Thats like vepco in V.A.I live in a smale town I tryed to find a coop to lower my bill the said that there is no coop here. They owen the town poles .the one comp- so I "m stuck with just this comp-.I pay what they say.

Legs Diamond
Legs Diamond - Thursday November 05, 2009 12:51PM EST

Don't trust Comcast.They have ignored their customers concerns and window dress comments.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Thursday November 05, 2009 01:16PM EST

comcast.. with gramp jr and sonny all crooks. the smell lingers... but hey... the unemployment is less than it was before.. so you know what that means boys and girls?... anyone anyone? class?... yes, indeedy, it's time to all sing... barack hussein obama mmm mmm mmm...time to Golf and party at the white house... and harvest the garden...100's of lbs of veggies were harvested at the white house garden???? what did they do plow up the south 40?... Michelle tended all of this.. lolololol... obama gave it plenty of fertilizer from all his speeches and dodging responsibility with the military.. but hey, mmm mmm mmm

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