Comcast launches investment company
PHILADELPHIA – Michael Angelakis, the top Comcast Corp. executive who headed the negotiations for NBCUniversal and Time Warner Cable Inc., will leave his post to head a new Comcast-controlled company that will invest in growth-oriented companies.
The new company will be capitalized at $4.1 billion with Comcast as the only nonmanagement investor. The company will launch this year or in early 2016 with Angelakis investing $40 million of his money into the venture, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Angelakis, named recently by the Wall Street Journal as one of the nation’s top CFOs, announced his departure at the media and technology giant at a sensitive time with the federal and state governments reviewing the Time Warner Cable acquisition.
The complex $45 billion deal entails not only a merging of the nation’s two-largest cable companies, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, but also a related spinoff of Comcast cable assets into a separate publicly traded company to satisfy federal regulators and sale of cable assets to Charter Communications Inc.
Brian Roberts, Comcast’s chief executive officer, said in a statement that the integration and merger plans between Comcast and Time Warner Cable were well-advanced and “Michael is really ready and excited to turn his attention to the next phase of his career and relationship with Comcast.”
Angelakis, who held the title of CFO and vice chairman, is considered one of the top executives at Comcast, in addition to Roberts, NBCUniversal head Steve Burke, Comcast cable division head Neil Smit and David Cohen, executive vice president.
Angelakis will resign from his posts as Comcast chief financial officer and vice chairman when Comcast appoints a new CFO or by June 30, 2016.
“As we enter the final phase of the Time Warner Cable transaction, this is a great time to begin a transition and I am excited to start this new, entrepreneurial company,” Angelakis said in a statement Tuesday. “Our industry is dynamic and I am very excited and optimistic about the many opportunities available to Comcast. … I look forward to closing the Time Warner Cable and related transactions and commencing the integration process.”