Could A Cable Merger Tempt Comcast? For Now, It’s More Focused On Reversing “Negativity” About The Sector, Execs Say

Comcast has shown an appetite for M&A, and the cable and broadband sector is seeing consolidation, but the media giant for now is focused less on dealmaking than on reversing negative investor sentiment.

That was the word Thursday from Co-CEOs Brian Roberts and Mike Cavanagh during the company’s call with Wall Street analysts after it released first-quarter earnings results.

“The opportunity we have, given the negativity around the cable segment and the changes we’ve made and the progress we’re seeing and the roadmap we see ahead, is a rich path to drive value,” Cavanagh said. “I think we’re undervalued, frankly, and the negativity on the business is something we need to work on changing people’s sentiments towards. Period, full stop.”

As cord-cutting has shrunk the pay-TV bundle from 100 million homes about a decade ago to 60 million-plus today, cable and satellite operators have been overhauling their strategies. Broadband, long the savior of the sector as video footprints have diminished, has also shown signs of weakness.

Comcast, formerly the No. 1 cable operator, is now No. 2 behind Charter Communications. With declining subscriber counts leaving smaller players vulnerable, Charter recently said it would acquire rival Cox Communications in a $34.5 billion deal. The FCC approved the transaction in February, and the Department of Justice has also given it the OK. The transaction is expected to close in the coming months.

In 2018, Comcast paid $40 billion to acquire European pay-TV giant Sky, outdueling 21st Century Fox in a bidding war. The deal has yielded mixed results, most investors and analysts have concluded.

More recently, major deals in the sector have included Verizon buying Frontier Communications for $20 billion and AT&T acquiring Lumen’s fiber business. Amid the ongoing retrenchment in pay-TV operators, some Wall Streeters have speculated that Comcast and Charter could one day combine. While such a team-up of giants seems to test the limits of today’s deal-friendly regulatory environment, several analysts consider it viable, especially if Comcast were to spin out NBCUniversal. Thus far, the company has not signaled any lack of commitment to its large entertainment subsidiary.

Cavanagh indicated that Comcast could explore other options shy of a full merger. “We’ve got plenty of opportunities and have worked with others in the industry to partner around video or mobile,” he said. “So there are ways to benefit ourselves through scale in partnership terms, and we’re open to doing that. And then, ultimately, there are always bigger ideas that, as [Co-CEO Brian Roberts] said, open strategic possibilities to create value. But the focus is really on what we can do ourselves, and the list is long, and we’re underway on that.”

As Comcast has overhauled the division encompassing cable and broadband, installing new leadership and evaluating its financials in detail, it has emphasized “believing in the assets you’ve got,” Roberts said on the earnings call.

The company shed most of its cable networks portfolio in January, spinning them off into a stand-alone company, Versant, Roberts noted. As to further M&A, he continued, “the bar’s high, but we’re, we’re always focused on looking at those kind of creative situations. But that said, I also just really do like the direction of the company and don’t want to create a lot of distraction.”