Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Not Feeling "Comcastic" Over This

This Philadelphia Inquirer story tells us that the Comcast shareholders meeting is taking place today, but in advance of the meeting, shareholders of Chieftain Capital Management, which owns 2 percent of the company’s stock, met with four members of the board of Comcast, including executive vice president David L. Cohen, to “(complain) about stock returns and compensation for Brian L. Roberts and other top executives,” according to the story.

I’m not sure if any of the following topics will be discussed at the meeting, but I’ll mention them here anyway…

  • This tells us that, though income was up 10 percent across the company from its business units, the company lost a net of 57,000 subscribers in the first quarter (and this Motley Fool post tells us that that is the number that matters the most).


  • This tells us of Comcast’s ongoing efforts to block BitTorrent – a popular Internet protocol – that transfers large files including full-length videos (Comcast has done this in part because BitTorrent competed with the cable company’s video-on-demand and television offerings).


  • This tells us about Stephen B. Burke, the corporate operating officer of Comcast, who just happens to be a “pioneer” for Dubya (not illegal I realize – the company contributes heavily to both parties, but more towards Republicans), and this tells you about Comcast’s cozy relationship with past and formal officials of Maryland’s state government.


  • And how could I possibly ignore the company’s sterling customer service also…

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