Connections to White House, DoD, Hill 

Lorine D. Card: consultant (sister-in-law of White House chief of staff Andrew Card)
Victoria Clarke: former Ass’t Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs under Donald Rumsfeld
Alfred Mottur: consultant (former senior telecommunications advisor to Sen. Ernest Hollings)
David Cohen: former aide to (now) Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell
Kerry Knott: former chief of staff to former House Majority Dick Armey and a Microsoft lobbyist
Melissa Maxfield: former head of Sen. Tom Daschle’s political action committee
Jessica Wallace: former senior advisor to Rep. Billy Tauzin (while he was chair of House Energy and Commerce Committee)

According to Comcast’s lead political operative, David Cohen, this lobbying team gives the company " … a lot of balance. Republican and Democrat, House and Senate, people who have relationships throughout Washington….”

Sources: “Rising Profile in D.C.: Comcast Bolsters Its Lobby Operation With Top Talent,” Multichannel News, Sept. 29, 2003; “Comcast’s Emergence as Titan Is Backed By a Powerful Lobby,” Wall Street Journal, Feb. 13, 2004.

 

Comcast’s Merger Money: Which Politicians are Getting Contributions

$10,000-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD)
$5,000-Sen. (and Commerce Chair) John McCain (R-AZ)
$5,000-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX)
$5,000-House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chair Fred Upton (R-MI)
$5,000-House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Joe Barton (R-TX)
$5,000-House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member John Dingell (D-MI)

$200,000-plus to Bush-Cheney re-election campaign from Stephen Burke, president, Comcast Cable. 

Comcast's PAC gave $599,372 to candidates in 2002 and $424,159 in 2003.

sources: "Watchdogs Target Comcast," TV Week, Feb. 16, 2004; Wall Street Journal , Feb. 13, 2004

 

Wall Street Rain-Makers: Firms Helping Comcast Further Concentrate Control Over the Media

Morgan Stanley (Paul Taubman.   The company helped Time Warner Acquire Turner Broadcasting, Viacom take over CBS)

Quadrangle Group (Steven Rattner.   Former journalist turned media dealmaker, represents the Sulzbergers, owner of the New York Times ).

J. P. Morgan Chase & Co. (Rob Kindler.   He helped Viacom buy CBS and worked on the merger of AOL and Time Warner)

Felix Rohatyn (former Ambassador to France under Pres. Clinton)

Davis Polk & Wardwell (legal advisor.   Helped Comcast Swallow AT&T Broadband)

DC Lobbying Firm:   Brownstein, Hyatt and Farber (Washington power-brokers with high-level connections to Democrats and the GOP (including Gale Norton, the Secretary of the Interior)

Sources: The Deal , Feb. 16, 2004; AFX News Service; New York Magazine

 

Comcast Calls itself the "Broadband Distribution Leader"

It now controls (as of Feb. 2004):

21.5 million cable TV subscribers

5.3 broadband subscribers

7.2 million digital video customers

Comcast is the "Market Leader" in 8 of the top 10 U.S. markets, with 70 percent of subscribers in the top 20 U.S. markets, and operates in 22 of the top 25 markets.

Its programming interests include "E," Comcast Sports Net, G4, Golf Channel, Style, Outdoor Life, TV One, and Comcast-Spectacor.

Source: Comcast

 

Comcast Gets an "F" for Lack of Good Corporate Governance

The institutional watchdog group Corporate Library has given Comcast Holdings Corporation an "F" rating for the effectiveness of its board of directors.   It also informed investors that as a result of the "F" rating, "...the weaknesses of the board contribute to a VERY HIGH degree of investment risk to this stock."

Corporate Library's company profile on Comcast notes the absence of "fully independent outside directors," and the lack of a "formal governance policy" and "effective CEO compensation practices."   Its outside directors--who are supposed to be independent of the company--have strong links to Comcast and the cable industry.   For example, Comcast president Brian Roberts' father--Ralph J. Roberts (a co-founder of the company)--is listed as an "outside" director.   So too is Decker Anstrom, the former chief lobbyist for the cable industry (and now CEO of the company that runs cable's Weather Channel).   Anstrom chairs the "compensation" committee of the board; Ralph Roberts is chair of the "executive" committee.   CEO Brian Roberts, who received almost $10 million in compensation in salary and stock options, heads both the nominating and governance committees.

One Comcast board member, Julian A. Brodsky, also serves on the board of Rupert Murdoch's NDS corporation.   The twelve-director board has a lone woman director.   (The Walt Disney Co., which Comcast is trying to acquire, also received an "F" rating from the Corporate Library.)

Source:   Corporate Profile: Comcast Holdings Corp. 2004 by The Corporate Library