{"id":919935,"date":"2026-07-15T02:13:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/comcast-bosses-say-nbcu-cable-separation-absolutely-not-designed-to-pursue-m-weve-now-simply-changed-our-mind-that-the-businesses-are-better-toget\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T02:13:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T07:13:03","slug":"comcast-bosses-say-nbcu-cable-separation-absolutely-not-designed-to-pursue-m-weve-now-simply-changed-our-mind-that-the-businesses-are-better-toget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/15\/comcast-bosses-say-nbcu-cable-separation-absolutely-not-designed-to-pursue-m-weve-now-simply-changed-our-mind-that-the-businesses-are-better-toget\/","title":{"rendered":"Comcast Bosses Say NBCU-Cable Separation \u2018Absolutely Not\u2019 Designed to Pursue M&A Deals; \u2018We\u2019ve Now Simply Changed Our Mind\u2019 That the Businesses Are Better Together"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tMore than 15 years ago, Comcast<\/a> took its first steps toward taking over NBCUniversal<\/a>. Now it\u2019s unwinding the media business from the broadband and TV pipes, planning to spin off NBCU and Sky into a stand-alone entity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo what changed in the intervening years? Mike Cavanagh<\/a>, Comcast co-CEO who is set to become chief exec of NBCU after it spins off, tried to explain the evolution of the company leadership\u2019s thinking on a call with Wall Street analysts Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s no surprise that both the media and telecom landscapes have become increasingly competitive, and that pace of change continues to accelerate,\u201d Cavanagh, who joined Comcast in 2015 originally as CFO.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n\tCavanagh continued, \u201cAnd so we simply don\u2019t see these conditions changing anytime soon. So, where we previously believed that scale and the diversification benefits warranted operating these businesses as one company, we\u2019ve now simply changed our mind about that. We\u2019ve now concluded that future success for each of our businesses will depend on focus, speed and strategic flexibility that this separation will unlock, and I think what\u2019s special about this moment is that we have a strong balance sheet and significant financial resources, and that\u2019s going to allow us to set up both companies with their own strong investment-grade balance sheets, enabling their pursuit of future growth and value creation that we see for each new company.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBrian Roberts<\/a>, chairman and co-CEO, told analysts the split \u201cis not about separating what we built together. It\u2019s about positioning two exceptional businesses to move forward with greater focus, agility, and the ability to fully capitalize on the opportunities ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked whether investors should view the planned separation as a step toward potential \u201cstrategic transactions\u201d for either company \u2014 meaning mergers or acquisitions \u2014 over time, Roberts responded, \u201cAbsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is the right move to put each company in the strongest position to create value, fully monetize its assets and aggressively pursue its own organic growth strategies,\u201d Roberts said. Cavanagh jumped in to add, that the plan for NBCUniversal and Sky \u201cis to build and invest for growth. We have the ambition that\u2019s big to pursue opportunities that keep us ahead of evolving consumer behavior and audience demands, and we have the freedom now to explore adjacent businesses where we have the right to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShares of Comcast were up 9% in midmorning trading Monday, but the stock is still off its 52-week high and is down year-to-date.<\/p>\n

\n\tComcast is fresh off another spin: In January 2026, it completed the separation of Versant Media, a business that includes CNBC, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC), USA Network, Fandango and more.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeparately, in December 2025, Comcast had formally entered a bid to combine Warner Bros.\u2019 streaming and studios business with certain of Comcast\u2019s related businesses<\/a> with a \u201cheadline price\u201d of $35.43 per WBD share. Comcast lost out to Netflix, which itself was subsequently outbid by David Ellison\u2019s Paramount Skydance for a $111 billion deal to merger with WBD in its entirety.<\/p>\n

\n\tRoberts, on the call Monday, said that as Comcast\u2019s board considered splitting the cable connectivity business apart from NBCU and Sky, there were three basic questions. <\/p>\n

\n\tOne, can these businesses stand alone and have the heft to stand alone as separate companies? Two, do they have clear and viable capital allocation path to invest? And three, is now the right time? \u201cAnd the answer we came back with was \u2018yes\u2019 to all counts,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese are two exceptional businesses, each with scale in their own right\u2026 and the financial strength that we hope to have to succeed as standalone companies,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cOur philosophy has always been to invest for growth, and we\u2019ve done that over many years, and it\u2019s really strengthened these businesses and created tremendous value.\u201d Among the points Roberts spelled out, he said that Comcast has built a \u201cscaled streaming business\u201d with Peacock, which is poised to hit profitability in the second quarter of 2026 less than six years after initial launch.<\/p>\n

\n\tCavanagh, about why Sky is being coupled with NBCU, said: \u201cAt its core, Sky is a premium media and entertainment business with one of the most powerful consumer brands, leading news, entertainment, sports, and strong positions in attractive European markets. Bringing Sky together with NBCUniversal enhances the scale and global profile of the media and entertainment company, creates more opportunities to invest on entertainment, sports, and news content, enables the sharing of innovation and technological advantages that we see all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe separation of Comcast Cable and NBCU-Sky is expected to occur in mid-2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tMichael Angelakis, Comcast\u2019s former CFO who has served as chairman and CEO of investment fund Atairos Group since 2015, has been tapped to be CEO of Comcast following completion of the separation. He\u2019s joining Comcast in the interim as a strategic adviser.<\/p>\n

\n\tPictured top: Mike Cavanagh (left), Brian Roberts<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Todd Spangler
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than 15 years ago, Comcast took its first steps toward taking over NBCUniversal. Now it\u2019s unwinding the media business from the broadband and TV pipes, planning to spin off NBCU and Sky into a stand-alone entity. So what changed in the intervening years? Mike Cavanagh, Comcast co-CEO who is set to become chief exec<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":919936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1826,195],"tags":[14363,6642],"class_list":["post-919935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bosses","category-comcast","tag-bosses","tag-comcast"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}