Comcast NBCU spinoff raises hope for M&A. There aren’t good options

Analysts think Comcast is priming for deals. Comcast leadership says they’re wrong.

The company announced Monday it plans to separate its two primary businesses — cable broadband and the media units of NBCUniversal and Sky. It’s the second major structural change for the decades-old company in recent months, and it’s raising questions of potential future deals for either half of the company.

But on a call with investors to discuss the split, Comcast executives came ready with cold water:

“Absolutely not,” Comcast co-CEO Brian Roberts said Monday, when asked if investors should view the separation as a potential setup for future deals.

Roberts, son of founder Ralph Roberts and Comcast’s controlling shareholder, won’t be CEO of either company after the separation but will continue to be “actively involved” in the leadership of both companies, Comcast said.

“This 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,” Roberts said.

Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh echoed that denial: “On the NBCUniversal side and [with] Sky, definitely not.”

A reason Comcast is squashing deal speculation? There may not be many good ones left.

Wall Street and industry onlookers have called for a split of Comcast for years, motivated by the rise of streaming and severe competition in the media industry.

While company leaders have discussed a separation at various points since at least 2019, executives have never seriously considered it until now, according to a person close to the situation who spoke anonymously due to the private nature of the discussions.

When Comcast decided to siphon off its cable TV networks into a separate publicly traded company less than two years ago — the spinoff that would ultimately become CNBC-parent Versant Media Group — the prospect of carving out NBCUniversal as a whole never came up, the person said.

Instead, the move to sever NBCUniversal and Sky from the Xfinity cable business came together rather quickly in recent months, the person said.

Wall Street just witnessed a large media deal following an announced spin, noted Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester. Before Warner Bros. Discovery launched a sale process that resulted in dueling bids from Netflix and Paramount Skydance, WBD said it planned to separate its assets into two companies.

“Comcast is following a playbook we have already seen. Warner Bros. Discovery split itself apart as it moved into a deal with Paramount. Now Comcast is doing the same with NBCUniversal. History matters here because Peacock increases NBCUniversal’s acquisition potential,” said Proulx.